each other. I am sorry to say that I don't think the fellow
is alone. Two or three times I have fancied that I caught a glimpse of
a sail on our starboard quarter. I could not swear to it, but I don't
think I was mistaken, and I called the captain's attention that way,
just before he went down ten minutes ago, and he thought he saw it,
too. However, as there was nothing to be done, he went down for a
caulk. He had not left the deck since noon, yesterday."

"But if she is no bigger than the other, I suppose we shall leave her
behind, too, Mr. Rawlinson?"

"Ay, lad, we shall leave them both behind presently; but if they are
what I think, we are likely to hear more of them, later on. They would
not be so far offshore as this, unless they were on the lookout for
Indiamen, which of course keep much farther out than ships bound up
the Mediterranean; and, having once spotted us, they will follow us
like hounds on a deer's trail. However, I think they are likely to
find that they have caught a tartar, when they come up to us.

"Ah! Here is the doctor.

"Well, doctor, what is the report below?"

"Only the usual number of casualties--a sprained wrist, a few
contusions, and three or four cases of hysterics."

"Is Mother all right, doctor?" Dick asked.

"As I have heard nothing of her, I have no doubt she is. I am quite
sure that she will not trouble me with hysterics. Women who have had
real trouble to bear, Dick, can be trusted to keep their nerves steady
in a gale."

"I suppose you call this a gale, doctor?"

"Certainly. It is a stiff north-easterly gale, and if we were facing
it, instead of running before it, you would not want to ask the
question.

"That is a suspicious-looking craft, Rawlinson," he broke off,
catching sight of the brig, now on their port quarter.

"Yes, she is a privateer I have no doubt, and, unless I am mistaken,
she has a consort somewhere out there to starboard. However, we need
not trouble about them. Travelling as we are, we are going two knots
an hour faster than the brig."

"So much the better," the doctor said, shortly. "We can laugh at one
of these fellows, but when it comes to two of them, I own that I don't
care for their company. So the longer this gale holds on, the better."

The mate nodded.

"Well, Dick," the doctor went on, "do you feel as if you will be able
to eat your breakfast?"

"I shall be ready enough for it, doctor, but I don't see how it will
be possible to eat i