hree seconds Her Majesty's brig was under
topsails, hove-to alongside her prize.

"Mr Rawson," said the captain, addressing me, "there will be some
difficulty in boarding that vessel, and I wish that you would go in the
gig and take possession of her. She is our first prize, remember, and
it would not do to let her slip through our fingers."

"Ay, ay, sir. Gig's crew away, then?" I sung out, as I stepped to the
binnacle to take the bearings of the schooner from us. Luckily I did
so, for we could only then just distinguish her, and a dark mass of
clouds driving across the moon shut her out completely from our sight.
"Bear a hand there, and lower away the gig!" I sung out, for I was
anxious to shove off before the brig entirely lost her way through the
water.

It was not particularly pleasant work in the heavy sea there was running
having to grope about in the dark for a craft manned probably by
desperadoes, who would be too happy to cut our throats if they had the
opportunity. I had a brace of pistols, and a few cutlasses had been
thrown into the boat. Thus prepared we cast off, and the men bent
bravely to their oars as the boat topped the heavy seas over which we
had to pass. The brig showed a light for us to steer by, but the
schooner was in no way so civil. On we pulled, however, in the hope of
hitting her, but though we had gone over fully the distance I calculated
she must have been from us, yet nothing of her could we see. I was
almost in despair, and as while looking for her I could not attend
carefully to the boat's steering we shipped two or three heavy seas,
which almost swamped her, and we had to bale them out as fast as we
could. For some time the men lay on their oars, just keeping the boat's
head to the seas while we looked round for the chase.

"She has gone! The rascal took the opportunity of the last shower to
sneak off," I thought. "Pleasant. But patience; c'est la fortune de la
guerre."

Disconsolate enough I was steering back for the faint glimmer of light
which I believed proceeded from the lantern on board the _Gadfly_, when
I fancied I heard the loud flapping of a sail near us. I looked
earnestly into the darkness.

"There she is, sir," sung out the coxswain.

"You're right. Give way, my boys," I cried; and in a few minutes we
were alongside the schooner.

Not a rope was thrown to us, nor was any assistance offered, so we had
to scramble on board as best we could. It was