blue water and sharp wind, and hardly had its first level rays
shot across the ocean floor when the watch below was tumbled out by a
chorus of shouts from the deck.

Jeremy, as he burst upward through the hatchway, cast an eager eye to
either beam, then uttered a whoop of joy, as he caught the gleam of
white canvas over the bows. There, straight ahead and barely a league
distant, raced the _Revenge_ and her pirate crew.

Captain Job reached the deck only a couple of jumps behind the boys, and
an instant later his deep voice boomed the order to shake out all reefs
and set the top-sails.

Bob, who had slept the clock around and eaten a hearty breakfast, soon
appeared at Jeremy's side, looking fit for any adventure. With Tom they
went up into the bows and were shortly joined there by others of the
crew, all intent on the chase.

The swells as they surged by from stern to bow seemed to move more and
more sluggishly. Beneath a press of sail that would have made most
skippers fearful of running her under, Job was driving the _Tiger_ along
at a terrific pace. Now once more Jeremy's steering-wheel was proving
its worth. Job at the helm could hold the plunging schooner on her
course with far less danger of being swung over into the trough than
would have been the case with the old hand tiller.

But in spite of the schooner's headlong speed, the distance between her
and her quarry seemed to lessen scarcely at all. The old _Revenge_ with
her tall sticks and great spread of canvas was flying down before the
wind with all the speed that had made her name a byword, and the man
with the broken nose was evidently willing to take as many chances as
his pursuers.

All morning the chase went on. At noon, when the winter sun flashed on
the high white dunes of Cape Cod, to starboard, the _Tiger_ seemed to
have gained a little. Job, leaving the wheel for a bit, came forward and
measured the distance with his eye. He shook his head. "Two miles," he
said. "At this rate we can't get within range before dark." And he went
back to his steering.

But for once he was mistaken. For an hour or more the buccaneers had
been hauling over little by little toward the coast, possibly with the
idea of running in and escaping overland as soon as night should fall.
Now the lookout in the foretop of the _Tigers_ gave a cheer.

"They've caught a flaw in the wind!" he shouted. "Watch us come up!"

Sure enough the _Revenge_ had sailed into an area of l