tch of canvas on the brig which
she could carry, with starboard fore-topmast studding-sails. We drew
rapidly on the chase, and in half-an-hour could see nearly down to her
topsails. The breeze freshened, and we went through the water in
earnest.

"A thumping brig; there's no doubt about it," said the master. "Observe
the rakish cut of her sails; one can almost smell the niggers on board
her."

"She's carrying on, too, as it she was in a hurry to get away from us,"
I remarked.

"So she is," said the captain, coming on deck. "But it strikes me that
those slave-dealers generally send faster craft to sea than she appears
to be. It's only some of your wise governments who don't care about the
slavers being caught who send out slow-coaches, which are fit for
nothing but carrying timber."

"Then why should she be in such a hurry?" I observed.

"A sail right ahead!" sang out the man at the mast-head.

"Because she's in chase of something else," remarked the captain,
laughing. "Hand me the glass. I thought so. What do you make out of
that ensign which has just blown out at her peak?"

I took a look through the telescope.

"A Yankee brig, sir," I exclaimed, in a tone of vexation. "I should not
wonder but what she is an American man-of-war, after all."

Well, though it must be owned that the Yankees can build fine and fast
ships when they wish to do so, and want them to go along, I must say
that the chase sailed as badly as any ship-of-war I ever met. We came
up with her hand-over-hand, and we were soon sufficiently near to
exchange signals, when we made out that she was the United States
brig-of-war the _Grampus_, in chase of a suspicious-looking craft to the
southward.

Exchanging a few courteous expressions with the American captain, who
stood on the weather side of the poop eyeing us with a look of envy, we
passed rapidly by him.

"If you make yon stranger a prize, I think we ought to go shares," he
said, laughing. "We sighted her first."

"You shall have the whole of her if you overhaul her first," answered
our captain.

"Then I calculate we may as well give in, for your legs are a tarnation
deal longer than ours, it seems."

The sun, which now shone forth for a brief space, glittered on the
bright copper of the brig as she lifted to the send of the sea, and the
foam flew over her bows and washed fore and aft along her dingy sides as
she tore through the water; but it would not do, the little _G