ig to give chase in earnest, shaking out
another reef in her topsails, and firing again. It was perfectly clear
that we were looked upon with strong suspicion, and I had no doubt
whatever that, if we were caught, we should be detained until the
weather had moderated sufficiently for a boat to be sent aboard us. A
few minutes, however, proved sufficient to set our minds at rest with
regard to the brig astern; she was being pressed altogether too much--
for although the gale had certainly broken, it was still blowing
heavily,--she was careened almost gunwale-to, and was sagging away to
leeward bodily, as well as dropping astern of us. But unfortunately
there were two other brigs, one about a mile to leeward and another
about the same distance to windward, which now, in obedience to signals
thrown out by the frigate, took up the chase, and matters began to look
exceedingly awkward for us. The brig to leeward I cared nothing about;
I felt satisfied that we could outsail and out-weather her; but it was
the fellow to windward that caused me to feel anxious, for he was edging
down upon us, and in a comparatively short time would have us under his
guns. Luckily for us, there were a good many craft between us and this
vessel, and there was a whole crowd of them ahead, into the thick of
which we steered, in the hope that by threading our way among them we
should render it almost impossible for our pursuers to fire upon us for
fear of hitting some of the other vessels.

All three of the brigs in chase were now under double-reefed topsails,
and the way in which they drove along through the mountainous sea, now
soaring up to the crest of a wave in a smother of spray, showing the
whole of their fore-foot and some twenty feet of keel, and anon diving
furiously into a hollow, burying themselves to the windlass bitts, was a
sight worth seeing. The brig to windward had taken up the pursuit by
edging broad away for us, but her people were not long in discovering
that this would not do; the lively little _Dolphin_ was justifying her
name by almost flying through the water, and we fore-reached out so
rapidly that our friend quickly had to haul her wind again, and even
then we were bringing her fast upon our weather quarter, although she
was steadily decreasing the distance between us and herself. At length
she tried a gun, and the shot struck the water some distance ahead and
on our weather-bow. We were nearly, if not quite, within r