cheered, and then calmly proceeded on
their way.

CHAPTER XII

BACK ON THE "TARTAR"

The next morning broke fair. Their late foe had dropped out of sight on
the previous evening, but now, when the sun rose, Tom made out the
top-sails of a large ship on the horizon.

"She is coming towards us, lads, and by the course she is steering she
will pass within three miles of us. Is she English or French?"

"She is too far away yet to be certain," Dimchurch said, "but I can't help
thinking she is French."

"At any rate, Dimchurch, our best course will be to lower the sail, shake
the reef-points out, and have it ready for hoisting at a moment's notice.
Now that the wind is light again I should fancy we could get away from
her; with a start of two or three miles she would have no chance whatever
of catching us."

Suddenly Tom Stevens exclaimed:

"There is a sail coming up from behind. She looks to me close-hauled. If
both ships come on they are bound to meet; if one is French and the other
is English they are likely to have a talk to each other. In that case we
should be able to tell friend from foe by the colours, and could then make
for the English ship."

They sat anxiously watching the two ships, and soon they saw that the
point of meeting must be very near their own position. Presently their
hulls became visible, and Dimchurch pronounced one to be a thirty-two-gun
frigate, and the other a forty or forty-two. They then made out that the
one coming up from the south was flying the white ensign, and at once they
hoisted their sail and made for her. Equally intent upon a fight, the two
vessels approached each other without paying the slightest attention to
the little craft.

"The Frenchman means fighting, and as he has ten guns to the good he may
well think he is more than a match for our ship. Do you know her,
Dimchurch?"

"I think she is the _Lysander_, sir, though I can't be sure; there are so
many of these thirty-twos."

The vessels, as they passed, exchanged broadsides. Then both tacked, but
the Englishman was the quicker, and he raked the French frigate as she
came round. Then they went at it hammer and tongs. The Frenchman suffered
very heavily in spars and rigging, but at last the foremast of the English
ship fell over her side. The Frenchman at once closed with her, and after
pouring in a broadside, tried to board her.

The little boa