alm--and which still remained aloft and were doing
splendid service--we must have lost both our sticks and been reduced to
a sheer hulk long before the half-hour had expired.

I have said that we were doing quite as well as, if not a trifle better
than, the barque; for while we held our own with her, so that she was
unable to appreciably alter her bearing from us, we were steadily edging
up toward her, our gain in this respect being so great that ere the next
manoeuvre was at tempted we had risen her high enough to get a momentary
glimpse of the whole length of her rail when she floated up on the crest
of a sea. It was clear, therefore, that the barque had gained nothing
by running off the wind; on the contrary, we had neared her fully a
mile; her skipper, therefore, having given the unsuccessful experiment a
fair trial, suddenly took in all his studding-sails again, reduced his
canvas once more to a couple of reefs, and braced sharp up to the wind,
as before. But here again we had the advantage of him through the
superior smartness of our own crew, for he no sooner began to shorten
sail than we did the same, handling our canvas so quickly that we were
ready nearly five minutes before him, the result being that we had
gained another half-mile upon him and had placed ourselves a good
quarter of a mile upon his weather quarter by the time that he had
sweated up his top sail-halliards. We now felt that, barring accidents,
the barque was ours; she could escape us neither to leeward nor to
windward. Instead, therefore, of continuing to jam the schooner as
close into the wind's eye as she would sail, with the object of
weathering out on the barque, we pointed the little vixen's jib-boom
fair and square at the chase, checked the sheets and braces a few inches
fore and aft, and put her along for all that she was worth.

It is astonishing to note the advantageous effect that is produced upon
the sailing of a ship when it becomes possible to check the sheets and
braces even a few paltry inches; it was distinctly noticeable in the
case of the schooner; her movements were perceptibly freer and easier,
she no longer drove her keen cut-water into the heart of the seas,
receiving their blows upon the rounding of her weather bow with a force
sufficient to shake her from stem to stern and almost to stop her way
for an appreciable instant of time; she now slid smoothly up the breast
of the wave, taking its stroke fairly in the wake o