ompanied by
threats and protestation. Snowball was menaced with the most dire
vengeance; and told of terrible punishments that awaited him on his
capture.

Their threats had no more influence than their solicitations; and they
who had given utterance to them arriving after a time, at this
conviction, ceased talking altogether.

Snowball's silent, though evidently determined, rejection of their
demands had the effect of irritating those who had made them; and
stimulated by their spite with more energy than ever did they bend
themselves to the task of overtaking the fugitive craft.

Two hundred yards still lay between pursuer and pursued. Two hundred
yards of clear, unobstructed ocean. Was that distance to become
diminished, to the capture of the _Catamaran_; or was it to be
increased, to her escape?

CHAPTER EIGHTY FIVE.

NEARER AND NEARER.

Were the _Catamarans_ to escape or be captured? Though not propounded
as above, this was the question that occupied the minds of both crews,--
the pursued and the pursuing.

Both were doing their very utmost,--the former to make their escape, the
latter to prevent it; and very different were the motives by which the
two parties were actuated. The occupants of the lesser raft believed
themselves to be rowing and sailing for their lives; and they were not
far astray in this belief; while those upon the larger embarkation were
pulling after them with the most hostile intentions,--to rob them of
everything they had got,--even their lives included.

So went they over the wide ocean: the pursued exerting themselves under
the influence of fear; the pursuer, under that of a ferocious instinct.

In sailing qualities the _Catamaran_ was decidedly superior to the
larger raft; and had the wind been only a little fresher she would soon
have increased the distance between herself and her pursuer.

Unfortunately it was a very gentle breeze that was blowing at the time;
and therefore it was a contest of speed that would most likely have to
be decided by the oars. In this respect the _Catamaran_ laboured under
a great disadvantage,--she could only command a single pair of oars;
while, taking into account the various implements--capstan-bars and
handspikes--possessed by her competitor, nearly a dozen oars might be
reckoned upon. In fact, when her crew had got fairly settled down to
the chase, quite this number of men could be seen acting as rowers.

Though their strokes were b