days in port, she set out again on her wanderings about the
world. Week after week she patrolled the waters in all parts of the
globe where ships were likely to be met. Sometimes she would go a
fortnight without a capture, and then the men in the forecastle would
grow turbulent and restive under the long idleness. Every bit of
brass-work was polished hour after hour, and the officers were at
their wits' end to devise means for "teasing-time." The men made
sword-knots and chafing-gear enough to last the whole navy, and
then looked longingly at the captain's mustache, as the only thing
left in which a "Turk's head" could be tied. Music enlivened the hours
for a time; but the fiddler was soon voted a bore, and silenced by
some one pouring a pint of molasses into the _f_-holes of his
instrument. The enraged musician completed the job by breaking it over
the head of the joker. After several weeks, they put into Cape Town.
Here the practical joker of the crew made himself famous by utterly
routing an inquisitive old lady, who asked, "What do you do with your
prisoners?" The grizzled old tar dropped his voice to a confidential
whisper, and, with a look of the utmost frankness, replied, "We biles
'em, mum. We tried a roast, but there ain't a hounce of meat on one o'
them Yankee carkages. Yes, mum, we biles 'em." The startled old lady
gasped out, "Good lordy," and fled from the ship.

Putting out from Cape Town, the "Alabama" continued her weary round of
cruising. Many vessels were captured, and most of them were burned.
One Yankee captain proved too much for Semmes, as his story will show.
His ship was chased by the "Alabama" in heavy weather all day, and
occasionally fired upon. When the steamer was abeam, "she closed up
with us," the captain says, "as near as safety would permit, and,
hailing us, asked where we were bound, and demanded the surrender of
the ship to the Confederate Government. I answered through my trumpet,
'Come and take me.' Conversation being too straining for the lungs
amid the howling of the wind and rolling of the huge billows, and the
proximity of the vessels too dangerous, we separated a little, and had
recourse to blackboards to carry on our conversation. Semmes asked
where we were bound. I answered, without a blush, 'Melbourne,'
thinking that possibly he might try to intercept me if he knew that I
was to pass through the Straits of Sunda. Then he had the cheek to
order me to 'haul down your flag and