of flame from her bows, and a shell hissed above us--the first sign of
her attempt to stop us joining our own ship. The poor shooting excited
only the derision of the men, who set up their wild "halloas!" at it;
and again, when a second shot struck the aft mast and shivered it, they
were provoked to boisterous merriment. But we could make no reply, and
those on the nameless ship could not fire, for we lay right between
them and the other.

"Hands, lower boats!" yelled Black at this moment, and then, leaving no
more than ten or fifteen men in the steamer, he led the way to the
launch.

We were now no more than a quarter of a mile from safety, but the run
was full of peril, and, as the launch stood out, the nameless ship of a
sudden shut off her light, if possible to shield us in the dark. But
the pursuer instantly flooded us with her own arc, and, following it
with quick shots, she hit the jolly-boat at the third. Of the eight men
there, only two rose when the hull had disappeared.

"Fire away, by thunder!" cried Black, shaking his fist, and mad with
passion; "and get your hands in: you'll want all the bark you've got
just now."

But we had hauled the men aboard as he spoke, and, though two shells
foamed in the sea and wetted us to the skin in the passage, we were at
the ladder of the nameless ship without other harm, and with fierce
shouts the men gained the decks.

For them it was a glorious moment. They had weathered the perils of a
city, and stood where they could best face the crisis of the pursuit.
It was a spectacle to move the most stolid apathy: the sight of a
couple of hundred demoniacal figures lighted by the great white wave of
light from the enemy's ship, their faces upturned as they waited
Black's orders, their hands flourishing knives and cutlasses, their
hunger for the contest betrayed in every gesture. I stood upon the
gallery high above the seas, and looked down upon the motley company,
or along the space of the hazy arc to the other vessel, and I asked
myself again and again, What if we shall win--what if this desperate
adventurer shall again outwit those who have coped with him, and hold
his mastery of the sea?

Nor did it seem so improbable that he would. Those upon the Government
cruiser betrayed their uneasiness every moment by casting the beams of
their searchlight on every point of the horizon; but their signal was
unanswered, no assuring rays shone out in the distant blackness of the
n