if he
can't sail over it, like the Yankee flat-bottomed crafts, which draw so
little water that they can go across the country, when the dew is on the
grass in the morning, we shall come up with him," replied Togle, with
great gravity.

"I wonder you can joke about it, Togle," said Duff. "For my part, I
hate the sort of work, it makes one feel all nohow, and sadly injures
the appetite; I could scarcely eat my dinner to-day."

"One wouldn't have supposed so by the manner you stowed away the grub,"
answered Togle. "For my part, I don't feel so anxious, because I've
made up my mind that we shall catch her some time or other. Let's see,
it has just gone seven bells, so we've more than three hours of
day-light, and much may happen in that time."

The men were, meantime, discussing the subject of the chase in their own
fashion; nor did the three warrant officers, Brown, Black, and White,
fail to express their opinions on the matter.

"My opinion is," said Mr Brown, "that them Grecian chaps know how to
build crafts suited for going along in their own waters, as all must
allow is the case in most parts; but just let us catch any one of them--
that fellow ahead, for example--outside the straits, wouldn't we just
come alongside him in a quarter less time."

"As it is, he'll lead us a pretty chase, I fear," observed Mr Black.
"It will be like one I heard of in the war time, when a Jersey privateer
chased a French schooner from off the Start right round the Cape, and
never caught her till she ran into the Hoorly."

"Ah! but there was a longer chase than that which I have heard talk of,
when the _Mary Dunn_, of Dover, during the Dutch war, followed a
Dutchman right round the world, and never caught her at all," said Mr
White, who piqued himself on being facetious. "Now, I'm thinking this
present affair will be, somehow, like that, unless as how we manage to
go faster than we now goes along, which ain't very likely, or she goes
slower, which she don't seem to have a mind to do."

During the day, Captain Fleetwood scarcely quitted the deck. Up and
down he paced, with his glass under his arm, now and then stopping and
taking an anxious look at the chase, again to continue his walk, or else
he would stand loaning against the bulwarks for a length of time
together, without moving, unconscious of its lapse; his thoughts
evidently fixed on the vessel ahead, and penetrating, in fancy, her
interior. Indeed, none of the officer