ur two guns, and then luff right up
into the wind, and away on the other tack."

"Ay, ay, sir," replied the mate; "a stern chase is a long one."

"If we had the good fortune to cripple him, we should be safe; but have
the men ready to run the two guns over, and fire as I go about. Send
Adams to the wheel, and let the men stand by the sheets and braces."

Mr Lowe was a steady, cool, courageous officer, and his dispositions
were soon made. All was quiet on board the brig as she slipped through
the water; while the schooner, her decks literally covered with men,
came up rapidly, evidently intending to board.

Captain Weber stood on the weather quarter, as the wicked little craft
came sweeping up, her enormous mainsail well filled, and her sharp bows
cutting the water like a knife. She had a flush deck fore and aft, and
forward was built like a wedge. There appeared to be no ports.

"Schooner, ahoy!" shouted he, as the two craft neared each other.

A musket-shot was the reply, which missed. The captain raised his hand,
and the roar of the two nine-pounders was heard. Down came the
schooner's foresail, as she flew up into the wind, and a yell of
vengeance, mingled with cries of pain, rose from her crowded decks.

"Run the guns over!" shouted the captain. "Man the starboard
head-braces! Tend the boom-sheet! Haul on the weather-braces and
jib-sheet! Hard a-port, Adams, hard a-port!"

Shooting up into the wind, the brig payed round on her heel, the two
guns being again fired into the schooner's bows, as the sails filled,
and the "Halcyon" stood on the other tack.

"Hurrah, my lads!" shouted the delighted captain. "We've given her a
taste of our metal."

A spattering fire ran along the schooner's decks, the balls striking the
brig's bulwarks, but without doing any damage.

All seemed confusion on board the smaller vessel, the halyards of whose
foresail having been shot away, and nothing save the jib counteracting
forward the overpowering pressure of the enormous mainsail aft, she had
flown up into the wind, with her sails flapping and shivering. The crew
were shouting, gesticulating, and running here and there.

The "Halcyon," on the contrary, stood steadily on her course, from time
to time firing the nine-pounder from her quarter-deck, but, from want of
practice of her crew, without doing any apparent damage.

The shot soon began to fall short, and the "Halcyon," tacking once more,
lay her course with