htened, and
was exceedingly anxious to escape recapture. At the same time all sail
was crowded upon the schooner, the precaution being taken, however, to
tow an old spare foresail overboard, abreast the lee gangway, which had
the effect of causing the schooner to sail as if she were water-logged.
I also shaped a course with the schooner diverging about four points
from that of the galleon.

The latter now, of course, ran away from us, hand over hand; while now
the galley manifested a disposition to edge down a little and get a
nearer look at us both. This was precisely what I wanted, my hope being
that our precipitate retreat would be construed by the Spaniards as a
sign of weakness and fear on our part, and that the commander of the
galley would thus be inveigled into attempting the recapture of the
galleon single-handed, instead of sharing the honour with his consorts.
I anticipated that, if he should yield to my blandishments, he would
make a dash straight for the galleon without troubling himself about the
schooner, the sluggish movements of which would render her in his eyes
an altogether contemptible adversary, utterly beneath his notice, and
only to be tackled and submitted to an exemplary punishment after the
recapture of the galleon had been achieved. And, should I prove correct
in this line of reasoning, he would run away to leeward after the
galleon, when I should have him exactly where I wanted him, namely, to
leeward of the schooner, when it would be my business to see that he did
not again get to windward of us.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

I END MY CAREER AS A PRIVATEERSMAN.

For fully an hour the galley dallied with the tempting bait that I had
thrown out, now edging down towards us for a few minutes, and anon
hauling her wind again, her commander apparently suspecting some ruse on
our part. But at length our seemingly single-hearted anxiety to place
as much water as possible between ourselves and him, together with the
fact that both vessels were perceptibly increasing their distance from
him--the galleon fairly rapidly, the schooner much less so,--got the
better of his prudence; and, suddenly putting up his helm, he came
booming along down to leeward, wing and wing, steering a course that, as
I had expected, would soon carry him alongside the _Senora_.

The moment that it became apparent that he was in earnest I sent my
scanty crew to quarters, the long thirty-two was cleared away and
loaded, a