int on our weather quarter, gleamed in the
bright morning sunshine the white upper sails of a large craft that had
been sighted at daybreak and that was now coming up to us fast. Ryan
was already on deck, having been called immediately that the stranger
was made out, and was in a state of high glee at the success of his
stratagem, for he informed me that he had been up on the topsail-yard,
and had pretty well satisfied himself, both by the look of the craft and
the course she was steering, that she was a slaver running in upon the
coast to pick up a cargo.

It now became a nice question with us whether we should reveal our true
character as soon as the stranger should have approached within reach of
our guns, or whether we should try to follow her in, and, lying in wait
for her, seize her as she came out with her cargo on board. We were
still at a considerable distance from the coast--some twelve hundred
miles--and that fact inclined us strongly to make short work of her by
showing our colours and bringing her to as soon as she should come
abreast of us; while, on the other hand, there was the chance that by
following her in we might fall in with something more valuable than
herself.

We were still weighing the pros and the cons of this important question,
when the look-out aloft--for Ryan had only half-an-hour previously
determined to have a look-out maintained from the topgallant-yard
between the hours of sunrise and sunset--the look-out, I say, reported a
sail broad on our starboard bow, standing to the northward on a taut
bowline, and under a heavy press of sail. She was as yet invisible from
the deck; my superior officer and I therefore with one accord made a
dash for our telescopes, and, having secured them, hastened forward and
made our way up the fore-rigging to the topsail-yard, on to which we
swung ourselves at the same moment. From this elevated view-point the
upper half of the stranger's topmasts and all above were just visible
clear of the horizon; and, bringing our glasses to bear upon her, we
made her out to be a barque-rigged vessel under single--reefed topsails,
courses, jib, fore and main-topmast-staysails, and spanker; her yards,
which were pretty nearly square on to us, showed a quite unusual amount
of spread for a merchant vessel, and the rapidity with which she altered
her bearings and forged athwart our forefoot was conclusive evidence
that she was a remarkably speedy craft. For a moment it