t. Regis had
been headed for the chase.

"The game will not last all day," added Christy. "If I owned that
highflyer, I should not employ her present captain to sail her for me.
He is overloaded with a blind confidence, and he has made a very bad use
of his opportunities. If I had been in command of that steamer I should
have made her course so as to run away from all three of my pursuers as
soon as I made them out. It is six o'clock now, and I should have got
far enough into the darkness to give them all the slip, and gone into
Wilmington on a new track."

"Her captain appears to trust entirely to his heels, and to look
with contempt upon anything like manoeuvring," replied the first
lieutenant.

"But we must finish him up before the darkness enables him to give us
the slip. I have no doubt we could knock her all to pieces with the
midship gun in the next fifteen minutes; but if she can make eighteen
knots an hour, which we seem to be all agreed that she can do, she will
not be a useless addition to the United States Navy, and it would be a
pity to smash her up, for she is a good-looking craft. We are gaining
two knots an hour on her, and Mr. Vapoor is keeping things warm in the
engine and fire rooms."

"That is taking an economical view of the subject," added Mr. Baskirk,
laughing at the commander's utilitarian views.

"If we continue to fire into her, we must swing to every shot we send,
and that would take so much from our speed," argued Christy. "We are as
sure of her as though we already had her in our clutches. There are
plenty of officers in the navy who would like to command her when she is
altered over into a cruiser."

"You are quite right, Captain Passford; and there are some of them on
the deck of the St. Regis at this moment," said the first lieutenant,
laughing.

"Heave the log, Mr. Baskirk," said the captain.

The report from the master, who attended to this duty, was soon reported
to the executive officer, who transmitted it to the commander.

"Rising twenty knots, sir," said he.

"That will do," replied Christy. "That is enough to enable us to
overhaul the chase within half an hour."

Within fifteen minutes it could be seen that the St. Regis was rapidly
gaining on the Raven, for the latter was near enough now to enable the
pursuers to read the name on her stern, and the captain of the highflyer
could not help realizing that he had not the slightest chance to escape.
The chaser was withi