our observation went. Yet her
speed was such as I do not believe any ship achieved before. I have
spent many years upon the sea; have crossed the Atlantic in some of the
most speedy of those cruisers which are the just pride of a later-day
shipbuilding art; I have raced in torpedo-boats over known miles; but
of this I have no measure of doubt, that the speed of which that
extraordinary vessel then proved herself capable was such as no other
that ever swam could for one moment cope with. Now rising majestically
on the long roll of the swell, now falling into the concave of the sea,
she rushed onward towards the steamer she was evidently pursuing as
though driven by all the furies of the deep.

As we watched her, held rooted to our places as men who are looking
upon some strange and uncanny picture, the gun in her foremost turret
belched out flame and smoke, and we observed the rise and fall of a
shell, which cut the water a cable's length ahead of the straining
steamer and sank hissing beneath the sea. At that moment she ran up a
flag upon her signal mast, and, as I read it with my glass, I saw that
it was the flag of the Chilian Republic.

Now, indeed, the pursuit became so engrossing that my own men began to
sing out, and this reminded me that every soul aboard the _Celsis_ had
watched with me when I first set eyes on the nameless ship. I turned to
our skipper, who stood near on the hurricane deck, and saw that he in
turn was looking hard at me. Roderick had come up from his cabin, but
rested at the top of the companion ladder in so dazed a mood that no
speech came from him. The first officer had scarce his wits about him
to steer our own course, and the whole of the hands forward in a little
group upon the fo'castle now called out their views, then turned to ask
what it meant.

It was a matter of satisfaction to me that Mary still slept, and I
looked for the appearance of Paolo with some question. But he remained
below through it all. And at that I wondered more.

The skipper was the first to speak.

"That ship yonder," said he, jerking his thumb to starboard; "is it any
business of ours?"

"None that I know of," I replied; "but it's a mighty fine sight,
skipper, don't you think, a Chilian warship running after a liner in
broad daylight? What's your opinion?"

He shrugged his shoulders disdainfully, and took another sight through
his glass. Then he answered me--

"It's a fine sight enough, God knows, but I