on to overtake her, provided
we were not led out of our course, for it was of still greater
importance to get down to Barbadoes, or wherever the English admiral
might be.

During the stay of the _Liffy_ in the harbour, information had been
obtained of the movements of the French fleet, as also that they had a
large number of troops on board. Their object was to capture as many of
our West India Islands as they could, and several had already fallen
into their hands. Saint Christopher's, however, had hitherto held out;
Jamaica was prepared to resist to the last; and Barbadoes, our pet
island, was strongly protected by Sir Samuel Hood's fleet.

The French were, I should have said, vastly superior in numbers to the
English. We had, however, brave and vigilant commanders, who took good
care not to let the grass grow beneath their feet.

Had Captain Macnamara been certain that Lieutenant Dubois was ignorant
of the contents of the packet Larry had carried off, he would have cared
very little about letting the brig escape. He thought, however, that
Dubois might possibly have duplicates, or might have learned the
information they contained.

The wind freshened as we got outside. We could now see the brig about
five or six miles away to the southward, for she had got the first of
the breeze, and had carried it along while we were getting under weigh.
All sail being made, however, we rapidly gained on her.

"It'll be a bad job for Dan Hoolan if we come up with the little hooker,
Mr Terence," said Larry. "If the Frenchmen haven't shot him already,
our captain will be shure to run him up to the yard-arm, with the poor
fellows he decaived."

"It's what he richly deserves," I replied; "but I wish that he had never
been pressed. It would have been better to have left him on shore, to
stand his chance of hanging, or turning honest."

"Ah, shure there's but little honesty likely to come out of Dan Hoolan,"
observed Larry, who disliked him more than ever since he had caused the
deaths of Tim Logan and Ben Nash.

The brig was steering south-east directly for Guadaloupe, and we
followed in the same direction; but as there were numerous islands in
her course, she might, if she could retain her distance ahead till dark,
escape by keeping round them, or if hard pressed, run on shore, when the
French officers would probably endeavour to forward the information they
were conveying by some other vessel. She was, as I have said, v