dered one of the fastest vessels in the service; and though,
on the part of Harry and his friends, every nerve was strained, every
sail hoisted, and every manoeuvre used, they could not keep the
lugger out of harm's way. Every half-hour he looked at his watch, and
wished for night, and his friend, the skipper, followed his example.
There was a hot chase for several hours; and, though tubs of brandy
were thrown overboard by the dozen, still the whizzing bullets from
the cutter passed over the heads of the smugglers. It ought to be
mentioned, also, that the rigging of the lugger had early sustained
damage, and her speed was checked. About sunset a shot injured her
rudder, and she became for a time, as Harry described her, "as
helpless as a child." The cutter instantly bore down upon her.

"Now for it, my lads!" cried the skipper; "there is nothing for it but
fighting now--I suppose that is what you mean, Master Teasdale?"

Harry nodded his head, and quietly drew his pistols from the
breast-pocket of his greatcoat; and then added--

"Now, lads, this is a bad job, but we must try to make the best on't,
and, as we hae gone thus far" (and he discharged a pistol at the
cutter as he spoke), "ye knaw it is o' nae use to think o'
yielding--it is better to be shot than hanged."

In a few minutes the firing of the cutter was returned by the lugger,
from two large guns and a number of small-arms. Harry, in the midst of
the smoke and flame of the action, and the havoc of the bullets, was
as cool and collected as if smoking his pipe upon the beach at
Embleton.

"See to get the helm repaired, lad, as fast as ye can," said he to the
carpenter, while in the act of reloading his pistols. "Let us fight
away, but mind ye your awn wark."

Harry's was the philosophy of courage, mingled with the calculations
of worldly wisdom.

The firing had been kept up on both sides for the space of
half-an-hour, and the decks of both were stained with the blood of the
wounded, when a party from the brig, headed by her first mate,
succeeded in boarding the lugger. Harry seized a cutlass which lay
unsheathed by the side of the companion, and was the first who rushed
forward to repel them.

"Out o' my ship, ye thieves!" cried he, while, with his long arm, he
brandished the deadly weapon, and for a moment forgot his habitual
discretion.

Others of the crew instantly sprang to the assistance of Harry; and,
after a short but desperate encounter, the