?"

"A schooner, sure enough, sir. The same heavy raking spars and spread
of sails. It looks too good to be true, sir."

"Hah! Then you think it is the same craft?"

"Yes,--no--I daren't say, sir," replied the lieutenant; "but if it is
not it's a twin vessel."

"Yes," said the captain, closing his glass with a snap. "We'll say it's
the Yankee slaver, and keep to that till she proves to be something
else."

Holding to that belief, every stitch of canvas that could be crowded on
was sent aloft, and a pleasant breeze beginning to dimple the water as
the sun arose, the spirits of all on board the sloop rose as well.
Soon, however, it began to be perfectly plain that the schooner sighted
paid no heed whatever to the sloop of war, but kept on her course,
sailing in a way that proved her to be unusually fast and able to hold
her own so well that the spirits of those on the _Seafowl_ began to sink
again.

"Now we shall see what she's made of, Dick," said Murray excitedly, when
a blank charge was fired.

"Made of impudence," said Roberts quietly; "but there's no doubt about
her being the craft we want," he continued, "for she means to set us at
defiance, and she's going to make a run for it, and you see if she
doesn't escape."

"If she does," cried Murray impetuously, "I shall say it's a shame for
the Government to send the captain out with such a crawler as the
_Seafowl_. Why, for such a duty we ought to have the fastest sailer
that could be built and rigged."

Directly after, there was another gun fired from the sloop, and the
course of the shot sent skipping over the sea could be traced till it
sank to rise no more, after passing right across the schooner's bows.

The men cheered, for in answer to this threat of what the sloop would do
with her next gun, the schooner was seen to glide slowly round into the
wind, her great sails began to flap, when in quick time, one of the
cutters was manned, with the second lieutenant in command of the
well-armed crew.

Roberts had been ordered to take his place in the stern sheets, and as
he descended the rope he darted a look of triumph at Murray, whose face
was glum with disappointment as he turned away; and as luck had it he
encountered Mr Anderson's eyes.

"Want to go, Mr Murray?" he said, smiling.

"Yes, sir, horribly," was the reply.

"Off with you, then. Be smart!"

The next minute the lad had slipped down by the stern falls to where the
officer in command