of keeping them till he had attained the objects
he sought.

Mrs Armytage fainted when she heard the report, and the colonel came on
deck to ascertain its truth. He evidently did not like the look of
things.

"Cannot you make this craft of yours sail faster?" he asked, in an angry
tone of the master.

"It is the people who built her, sir, are to blame, not me. I am doing,
and will do, all a seaman can accomplish to escape the enemy; I have no
wish to be taken. I have a wife and family waiting my return home, and
Heaven have mercy on them! we shall be utterly ruined if the brig is
taken."

Colonel Armytage was silent; the chances of escape seemed small indeed.
Still pressed as she was with a far larger amount of canvas than the
master would have ventured to carry under ordinary circumstances, the
brig tore through the rising seas at a greater rate than had ever before
probably been got out of her.

The master stood watching the masts and spars with an anxious eye. They
bent and cracked with the greatly increased strain to which they were
exposed; the weather-shrouds and stays were tautened to the utmost. At
length the master turned round to Edda and Mrs Armytage, who, having
recovered from her first alarm, had come up on deck.

"My dear young lady, and you, ma'am, do go below, let me pray you; this
is no place for you," he said, with deep earnestness. "Any moment we
may have the masts and spars rattling down on our heads, or the enemy's
shot flying along our decks. Please Heaven, while the masts stand we'll
hold on. They can but take us in the end; but, dear ladies, do go
below. We shall act more like men if we know that you are safe."

Thus urged, most unwillingly Edda and her mother retired to the cabin.
The colonel, however, remained on deck.

"It shall never be said that where danger was present I was absent," he
remarked.

"Maybe, but you would be of much more use looking after your wife and
daughter in the cabin," muttered the honest old captain.

Edda and Mrs Armytage went into their own cabin. They knelt down.
They could not strive like men, but they could pray that the ship might
be preserved from the threatened danger, or, if it was Heaven's will
that it should overtake her, that they might have strength given them to
bear whatever it was their lot to suffer.

The breeze was freshening rapidly, the movement of the brig increased as
she plunged with a violent jerk into one sea, and then r