that we were gaining, although but slowly, on the barque, her
royals and half her topgallant-sails being by this time above the
horizon; and now all was anxiety on board the schooner as to the
character of the coming night; for we had no doubt that, seeing, as they
now must, that we were following them, the ever-vigilant suspicions of
the barque's people would prompt them to avoid us should the night prove
dark enough to permit of such a manoeuvre. The indications were all for
fine weather, however; the glass was rising steadily, the sky was
becoming of a deeper clearer blue; the white clouds were melting away,
promising a clear, star-lit night between the hours of sunset and
moonrise, and, what was equally as much in our favour, both wind and sea
were going down steadily.

Toward eight bells in the afternoon watch we sighted another sail--a
schooner this time; she was beating up to the eastward, and crossed the
hawse of the barque at no great distance, exchanging signals with her,
although what was their nature we could not see, and even had we been
near enough to have made out the flags, it is exceedingly improbable
that we should have understood them. We had a suspicion, however, that
they in some way referred to us; for shortly afterwards the schooner
tacked and stood towards us, crossing our bows at a distance of about a
mile, and exhibiting the French ensign. We replied by showing Spanish
colours, as before; upon which the stranger threw out some signal that
we could not understand, and after displaying it for some few minutes
hauled it down and hoisted another. We thought it would never do to
display a total ignorance of the signals; Ryan therefore ordered the
signal-bag to be produced, and we strung some flags together haphazard,
and hoisted them. This signal the schooner acknowledged, tacking at the
same time and standing toward us once more; but we were far too busy to
wait for her, for although she had all the looks of a slaver, we knew,
from the course she was steering, that she could have no slaves on
board, and was therefore altogether unworthy of our attention with so
promising a craft as the barque in plain view. She made no attempt to
follow us, and in an hour was out of sight to the northward.

By sunset that night the weather was everything that we could wish, and
we had risen the chase to her topsails; everybody on board the
_Felicidad_ was therefore in the highest spirits, and hope ran high th