Ryan having rejoined his prize, and there being a nice little easterly breeze blowing, the order was given for all three craft to weigh and proceed down the creek; the captain being rather anxious lest the slavers should return and take us at a disadvantage now that our force was divided. Nothing untoward occurred, however, and in a short time we were all proceeding down the creek, with the second lieutenant in his schooner as pilot.

And here it may be as well to enumerate the few particulars relative to our prizes that the exigencies of the narrative have hitherto not enabled me to give. To begin with the brig: she was, as Lobo had stated, the Mercedes of Havana; a truly beautiful craft, measuring fully five hundred tons, very flat in the floor, and so exceedingly shallow that even in her sea-going trim, with everything on board as when we took her, she only drew a trifle over eight feet of water aft. But what she lacked in depth she more than made up for in beam, her deck being half as spacious again as that of the Barracouta. She was a perfectly lovely model, and sailed like a witch, as we soon discovered. This was not to be wondered at, however, for in addition to the beautiful, easy grace of her flowing lines, her scantling was extraordinarily light—less than half that of the Barracouta—and all her chief fastenings were screws! With so light a scantling she of course worked like a wicker basket in anything of a breeze and seaway, and leaked like a sieve, the latter being of little or no consequence with plenty of negroes to send to the pumps in relays, while the working of her gave her life, and contributed in no small degree toward the extraordinary speed for which she was distinguished. She was armed with eight nine-pounder broadside guns, and a long eighteen mounted upon a pivot on her forecastle; and in the course of our investigations we discovered that her crew had numbered no less than seventy men, of whom fourteen were killed in her defence, and twenty-six too severely wounded to effect their escape. At the moment of her capture five hundred and sixty-four slaves, all males, were confined in her hold. She was thus, in herself, a very valuable prize, and quite worth all the trouble that we had taken to secure her. But in addition to her there were the two schooners, the larger of which, named the Dona Hermosa, was a vessel of close upon one hundred and twenty tons measurement, with nothing very remarkable about her appearance to distinguish her from a perfectly honest trader. Her cargo consisted of exactly three hundred slaves, rather more than half of whom were women and children. She was unarmed save for the few muskets that were found scattered about her decks when our lads boarded and took possession of her. The second schooner, of which Gowland, the master's mate, had temporary command, was a little beauty. She was named the Felicidad, and hailed from Santiago de Cuba. She was of one hundred and eighteen tons measurement, and in model generally very much resembled the Mercedes though neither quite so shallow nor so beamy in proportion, while her proportionate length was considerably greater; her lines were therefore even more easy and beautiful than those of the larger vessel. She sat very low in the water, and might have been sworn to as a slaver as far away as she could be seen, her raking masts being short and stout, and her yards of enormous proportionate length—her foreyard measuring no less than seventy-eight feet—with a truly astonishing spread of beautifully cut canvas. In light winds and smooth water she developed a speed that was absolutely phenomenal, easily running away from her two consorts on the passage down the creek under her flying jib and main sail only. She was pierced for three guns of a side, and was further fitted with a very ingenious arrangement for mounting a gun on a pivot amidships, and at the same time shifting it a few feet to port or starboard so as to permit of its being fired directly ahead or astern clear of the masts. None of her guns, however, were mounted at the time of her capture, they afterwards being found stowed below at the very bottom of her hold in a space left for them among her water-leaguers, from which they could easily be raised on deck when required. Like her consorts, she had on board a full cargo of slaves—numbering two hundred and forty, of whom about one-fourth were women and children—when captured.

Our passage up the creek having been effected in the intense darkness of an overcast and rainy night, it had of course been quite impossible for us to form any conception of the appearance of our surroundings; but now, in the broad daylight and clear atmosphere of a fresh and brilliant morning, every detail of the scene in the midst of which we found ourselves stood out with the most vivid distinctness, and I was not only astonished but delighted with the singularity and beauty of Nature's handiwork that everywhere met my eye in this region of tropical luxuriance. The three craft were the only evidences of man's intrusion upon the scene with which we were confronted; everything else was the work of Nature herself, untrammelled and uninterfered with; and it appeared as though in the riotous delight of her creative powers she had put forth all her energies in the production of strange and curious shapes and bewildering combinations of the richest and most dazzling colours. True, the water of the creek, which in consequence of the sheltering height of the bordering vegetation was glassy smooth, was so fully charged with mud and soil held in suspension that it resembled chocolate rather than water; but its rich brown colour added to rather than detracted from the beauty of the picture, harmonising subtly with the brilliant greens, deep olives, and splendid purples of the foliage, and the dazzling white, yellow, scarlet, crimson, and blue of the trailing blossoms that were reflected from its polished surface, as well as the delicate blue of the sky into which it merged at a short distance from the vessels. Mangroves with their multitudinous and curiously twisted and gnarled roots and delicate grey-green foliage lined the margin of the creek on either hand, and behind them rose tall, feathery clumps of bamboo alternating with impenetrable thickets of bush, the foliage of which was of the most variegated colours and curious forms, beyond which again rose the umbrageous masses of lofty trees, several of which were clothed with blossoms of pure scarlet instead of leaves, while over all trailed the serpentine convolutions of gorgeous flowering creepers. Euphorbias, acacias, baobabs, all were in blossom, and the fresh morning air was laden with delicious and almost overpoweringly fragrant perfume. Wherever a slight break in the continuity of the mangrove belt permitted the river bank itself to be seen, the margin of the water was ablaze with tall orchids, whose eccentricities of form were matched only by their unsurpassable beauty of colouring; and even the tall, luxuriant grasses contributed their quota to the all-pervading loveliness of the scene by the delicate purple tints of their stamens; while the curious, pendent nests of the weaver-bird, hanging here and there from the longer and coarser grass-stalks curving over the water, added a further element of strangeness and singularity to the picture. Brilliant-plumaged birds flashed hither and thither; kingfishers of all sizes perched solemnly upon the roots and overhanging branches of the mangroves, intently watching the surface of the muddy water for the tiny ripple that should betray the presence of their prey, or flitted low athwart the placid, shining surface of the creek; bright-coloured parrots were seen clawing their way about the trunks of the more lofty trees, or winging their flight fussily with loud screams from branch to branch; the cooing of pigeons was heard in every direction; and high overhead, a small black spot against the deep, brilliant blue of the sky, marked the presence of a fishing eagle on the look-out for his breakfast.

In less than half-an-hour we had traversed the distance to the mouth of the creek, just before reaching which we were astonished to discover the Barracouta hard and fast upon a sand-bank that lay just off the entrance, with her topgallant-masts struck, and her remaining boats in the water, apparently engaged in the task of lightening her. The captain looked terribly annoyed, but said nothing until we had rounded the last point and come to an anchor near the spot at which we had left the Barracouta on the previous night, when he ordered the gig to be hauled alongside, and, directing me to accompany him, gave the word for us to pull to the stranded craft.



CHAPTER FIVE.

THE 'FELICIDAD'.

The first lieutenant, looking exceedingly worried and distressed, was at the gangway to meet us.

"Well, Mr Young," exclaimed the captain as he stepped in on deck, "what is the meaning of this?"

"I wish I could tell you, sir," answered Young. "There has been foul play of some sort; but who is the guilty party I know no more than you do. As you will remember, it blew very hard last night when you left us; and for some time after you had gone I remained on the forecastle, watching the ship as she rode to her anchor. She strained a little at her cable when the heavier puffs struck her, but by no means to such an extent as to arouse the slightest anxiety; and after I had been watching for fully an hour, finding that the holding ground was good, and that even during the heaviest of the puffs the strain upon the cable was only very moderate, I felt perfectly satisfied as to the safety of the ship, and retired to the quarter-deck, leaving two men on the look-out on the forecastle, two in the waist, and one on either quarter; for although I anticipated no danger, I was fully alive to the responsibility that you had laid upon me in entrusting me with the care of the ship, as well as to the fact that in the event of a chance encounter just hereabout, we were far more likely to meet with an enemy than a friend. The same feeling animated the men too, I am sure, for the look-outs never responded to my hail with more alacrity, or showed themselves more keenly watchful than they did last night; yet I had barely been off the forecastle half-an-hour when we discovered that we were adrift; and before I could let go the second anchor we were hard and fast upon this bank, fore and aft, and that, too, just upon the top of high-water. I of course at once hoisted out our remaining boats, and ran away the stream-anchor to windward; but, working as we were in the dark, it took us a long time to do it; and I then sent down the royal and topgallant— yards and masts. When daylight came I examined the cable, thinking that possibly it might have chafed through on a rock; but to my surprise I found that it had been clean cut at the water's edge. How it was done, or who did it, is impossible to guess, for although I have very strictly questioned both the forecastle look-outs, they persist in the statement that they saw nothing, and were aware of nothing until the ship was found to be adrift."

"Well, it is a most extraordinary circumstance," commented the captain. "Are you quite satisfied that the men remained fully on the alert all the time?"

"Perfectly, sir," answered the lieutenant. "I hailed them every ten minutes or so, not knowing at what moment some disagreeable surprise might be sprung upon us. Besides, we did not know how you might be faring, and thought it quite possible that the craft you were after might attempt to give you the slip in the darkness. The men on the forecastle were two of the best we have in the ship—William Robinson and Henry Perkins."

"Yes," assented the captain; "they have always hitherto seemed thoroughly trustworthy and reliable men. Where are they? I should like to ask them a question or two."

The two men were summoned, and at once subjected to a very sharp cross-examination, which led to nothing, however, as they both persistently declared that they had neither seen nor heard anything to arouse the slightest suspicion until the discovery was made that the ship was adrift. The captain then went forward and inspected the severed cable; but that revealed nothing beyond the fact that the strands had been cut almost completely through with some very sharp instrument before the stubborn hemp had given way. In short, the whole affair was enshrouded in the deepest mystery. When, however, the captain had heard the whole story, and thoroughly investigated the matter, he freely absolved the first luff from all blame, frankly acknowledging that he did not see what more could have been done to provide for the safety of the ship, and that the thing would undoubtedly have happened just the same had he himself remained on board instead of going away with the boats.

Meanwhile, the dead and wounded had been conveyed from the prizes to the Barracouta, where the doctor immediately took the sufferers in hand, while the slain were stitched up in their hammocks ready for burial. At length it came to my turn to be attended to, and when the doctor saw my foot—now so dreadfully swollen and inflamed that my whole leg was affected, right up to the knee—I was promptly consigned to the sick-bay, with the intimation that I might think myself exceedingly fortunate if in that hot climate mortification did not set in and necessitate the amputation of my leg. I am thankful to say, however, that it did not; and in three weeks I was discharged from the doctor's care, and once more able to hobble about with the aid of a soft felt slipper. The dead were buried that same forenoon on the point projecting into the river at the junction of the creek with the main stream, the graves being dug in a small space of smooth, grassy lawn beneath the shadow of a magnificent group of fine tall palms.

A hasty breakfast was snatched, as soon as it could be got ready; and then every man available was set to work upon the task of lightening the stranded brig, her guns and such other heavy weights as were most easily accessible being transferred to the prizes, after which the second bower was weighed and run away to windward in the long-boat by means of a kedge; and such was the activity displayed, that at high-water that same afternoon—the tides were fortunately making at the time—the Barracouta floated and was hove off to her anchor. Meanwhile, the missing anchor had been swept for and found, and the severed end of the cable buoyed; before nightfall, therefore, the cable was spliced, and the bonny brig once more riding to her best bower. The men were kept at work until it was too dark to see further; and by six bells in the forenoon watch next day she was again all ataunto, her guns and everything else once more on board her, and the ship herself all ready for sea, it having been ascertained that she had sustained no damage whatever. It may be mentioned that the schooner which had effected her escape from us in the lagoon managed to slip out of the creek and get clear away without being observed by anybody on board the Barracouta; but that of course is easily accounted for by the pitchy darkness of the night, and the fact that she must have passed out of the creek a very short while after the brig had grounded upon the sand-bank, and when of course our lads would be fully occupied in looking after their own craft.

Proper prize-crews were now told off to the three prizes—Ryan being placed in charge of the Mercedes; Gowland, the master's mate, in charge of the Dona Hermosa; and Good, one of the midshipmen, in charge of the Felicidad—and the order to weigh and proceed in company was given. There was a slashing breeze from the eastward blowing; and this, combined with a strong downward current, carried us along over the ground so smartly that in less than two hours we were abreast of Shark Point, although the Dona Hermosa proved to be such an indifferent sailer that the rest of us had to materially reduce our spread of canvas to avoid running away from her altogether. The Felicidad, on the other hand, sailed like a witch, and kept her station without difficulty, under a single-reefed mainsail, foresail, and inner jib, with all her square canvas stowed. The master informed me that as we passed Banana Point he had remembered to subject the anchorage to a very careful scrutiny through his telescope, and, as he had foretold, the handsome Spanish brig had disappeared, the Englishman and the Dutchman being the only craft still lying off the wharf. Having made an offing of about twenty miles, we hauled up some three points to the northward for Cape Palmas, our destination being of course Sierra Leone.

On the third day out, the captain of the Mercedes—whom I had shot in self-defence in his own cabin, it will be remembered—died of his wound, solemnly declaring with his last breath that he was absolutely innocent of any complicity in the destruction of the Sapphire's two boats with their crews, or in the disappearance of the Wasp. He admitted that he had heard of both occurrences, and had been told the name of the individual who was said to be responsible for them, but he stubbornly persisted in his refusal to give any information whatever, and carried the secret to his ocean grave with him.

In due time we reached Sierra Leone without mishap and without adventure, after a moderately quick passage; and, our prizes having been taken in flagrante delicto, they were forthwith condemned. At Captain Stopford's suggestion, however, the Felicidad was purchased into the service, and with all speed fitted to serve as a tender to the Barracouta, her extraordinary speed peculiarly fitting her for such employment, while her exceedingly light draught promised to render her especially useful in the exploration of the various rivers along the coast, many of which are very shallow. We remained in harbour a trifle over three weeks while the necessary alterations were being effected— during which time, owing to the unremitting vigilance and skill of "Paddy" Blake, our doctor, we lost only one man through fever—and then, all being ready, the Felicidad was commissioned, Ryan, our second lieutenant, being given the command of her, with—to my great delight— myself as his chief officer, Pierrepoint and Gowland being our shipmates. We also shipped as surgeon a young fellow named Armstrong, a Scotchman, whom the captain of the Ariadne kindly spared to us with a first-rate recommendation; and in addition we had Warren, the gunner's mate of the Barracouta, as gunner; Coombs, the carpenter's mate, as carpenter; and Bartlett, the boatswain's mate, as boatswain. And by way of a crew, the captain gave us forty of his best men, as he very well could without weakening his own ship's company, a ship with supernumeraries having most opportunely arrived from home only a few days previously. It will thus be seen that, so far as strength was concerned, we were fairly well able to take care of ourselves. We were expected to do far more than that, however; the captain, when giving us our instructions, hinting that he looked to us to fully justify him by our services for all the trouble that he had taken in causing the schooner to be fitted out. I think, however, that having put such a dashing fellow as Ryan in command, he had very few misgivings upon this point.

The Barracouta and the Felicidad sailed together on the evening of the eighteenth of December, and, the captain having given Ryan a pretty free hand, parted company off the shoals of Saint Ann; the schooner keeping her luff and heading about south-south-west, while the brig bore away on a south-east-by-south course for Cape Palmas; the idea being that we should do better apart than together. We were to cruise for six weeks, and at the end of that time, if unsuccessful, to rendezvous on the parallel of six degrees south latitude and the meridian of twelve degrees east longitude; or, in other words, some eighteen miles off the mouth of the Congo. We were to remain on this spot twenty-four hours; and if at the end of that time the brig had not appeared, we were to proceed on a further cruise of six weeks, and then return to Sierra Leone to replenish our stores and await further orders.

It was a glorious evening when we sailed; a moderate breeze was blowing from the westward, pure, refreshing, and cool compared with the furnace-like atmosphere in which we had been stewing for the previous three weeks. The sky was without a cloud; the sea a delicate blue, necked here and there with miniature foam-caps of purest white; while, broad on our lee quarter, the high land about the settlement of Sierra Leone, just dipping beneath the horizon, glowed rosy red in the light of the sinking sun. It was an evening to make one's heart rejoice; such an evening as can only be met with in the tropics; and, just starting as we were upon what all hands regarded as a holiday cruise, it is but small wonder that we experienced and enjoyed its exhilarating influence to an almost intoxicating extent. Jocularity and laughter pervaded the little craft from end to end; and throughout the second dog-watch dancing, singing, and skylarking—all, of course, within the limits of proper discipline—were the order of the evening. As the sun disappeared in the west, the full, round orb of the moon floated majestically up over the purple rim of the horizon to leeward; and the swift yet imperceptible change from the golden glory of sunset to the silvery radiance of a clear, moonlit night was a sight of beauty that must be left to the imagination, for no mortal pen could possibly do justice to it.

"Now, Harry, me bhoy," exclaimed Ryan, speaking in the broad brogue that always sprang to his lips when he was excited or exhilarated, and slapping me upon the back as we emerged from the companion after dinner that evening, and stood for a moment contemplating the glory of the night, "from this moment we're slavers, we're pirates, we're cut-throats of the first wather, to be hail-fellow-well-met with every dirty blagguard that sails the says—until we can get them within rache of these pretty little barkers," affectionately tapping the breech of one of our long nines as he spoke; "and thin see if we won't give thim such a surprise as they haven't met with for manny a day!"

And he quite looked the character, too—for he was of very powerful, athletic build, though not very tall, swarthy in complexion, and burnt as dark as a mulatto by the sun; with a thick, bushy black beard, and a most ferocious-looking moustache that he had been assiduously cultivating ever since he had known that he was to have the command of the schooner—as he stepped out on deck at eight bells on the following morning, attired in white drill jacket and long flowing trousers of the same, girt about the waist with a gaudy silken sash glowing in all the colours of the rain bow, the costume being topped off with a broad-brimmed Panama hat swathed round with a white puggaree. He was indeed the beau-ideal of a dandy pirate skipper, and I was not a very bad imitation of him—barring the whiskers. The only things perhaps that a too captious critic might have objected to were the spotless purity of our clothing, and an utter absence of that ruffianly manner which distinguishes the genuine pirate; but, as Ryan observed, the first of these objections would grow less noticeable with every day that we wore the clothes, while the other was not necessary, or, if it should become so, must be assumed as successfully as our talents in that direction would permit. As for the crew, they had by Ryan's orders discarded their usual clothing for jumpers and trousers of blue dungaree, with soft felt hats, cloth caps, or knitted worsted nightcaps by way of head-covering, so that, viewed through a telescope, we might present as slovenly and un-man-o'-war-like an appearance as possible. This effect was further heightened by Ryan having very wisely insisted that not a spar or rope of the schooner should be altered or interfered with in any way, saving of course where it needed refitting; those therefore who happened to know the Felicidad would recognise her at once; and it was our business so to conduct ourselves that they should not suspect her change of ownership until too late to effect an escape. Her capture was of course by this time known to many of the craft frequenting the Congo; but that we could not help; our plans were based mostly upon the hope that there were still many who did not know it, and also, to some extent, upon a belief that, even to those who were aware of it, we might by judicious behaviour convey an impression that her people had cleverly effected their own and her escape, and were once more boldly pursuing their lawless trade.

We did not much expect to fall in with anything worthy of our attention until we were pretty close up with the Line; we therefore carried on all through the first night and the whole of the next day, arriving by sunset upon the northern boundary of what we considered our cruising ground proper. And then, as ill-luck would have it, the wind died away, and left us rolling helplessly upon a long, glassy swell, without steerage-way, the schooner's head boxing the compass. This period of calm lasted all through the night and the whole of the next day, varied only by an occasional cat's-paw of scarcely sufficient strength or duration to enable us to get the schooner's jib-boom pointed in the right direction. But this did not trouble Ryan in the least, for, as he reminded me for my consolation, we were now just where we wanted to be, and the first breeze that sprang up might bring with it one of the gentry that we were so anxiously on the look-out for. Meanwhile, he availed himself of the opportunity to prepare a certain piece of apparatus that he had employed his leisure in devising, and which he thought might possibly prove useful on occasion. "I've been thinking," said he to me on the morning after the calm had set in, "that it mayn't always be convanient for the schooner to go through the wather at her best speed, so I've devised a thriflin' arrangement that'll modherate her paces widhout annyone out of the craft bein' anny the wiser." And therewith he ordered a good stout hawser to be roused up on deck; and from this he had a length of some fifteen fathoms cut off, all along the middle part of which he caused a dozen pigs of ballast to be securely lashed. This done, he ordered the bight, with the pigs attached, to be passed under the ship's bottom, and the two ends of the hawser to be passed inboard through the port and starboard midship ports and well secured, when we had a drag underneath the schooner that would certainly exercise a very marked effect upon her sailing, without making a sufficient disturbance in the water to reveal the fact that trickery was being resorted to.

Towards the close of the afternoon the aspect of the sky seemed to promise that ere long we might hope for a welcome change of weather; the deep, brilliant blue of the unclouded dome became blurred as though it were gradually being overspread by a thin and semi-transparent curtain of mist, which gradually resolved itself into that streaky, feathery appearance called by seamen "mare's-tails"; and a bank of horizontal grey cloud gathered in the western quarter, into which the sun at length plunged in a glare of fiery crimson and smoky purple that had all the appearance of a great atmospheric conflagration. A short, steep swell, too, gathered from the westward, causing the inert schooner to roll and wallow until she was shipping water over both gunwales, and her masts were working and grinding so furiously in the partners that we had to lift the coats and drive the wedges home afresh, as well as to get up preventer-backstays and rolling tackles.

"There is a breeze, and a strong one too, behind all this," remarked Ryan to me, "and it will give us an opportunity to test the little hooker's mettle. I wish it would come and be done with it, for by the powers I'm gettin' mighty toired of this stoyle of thing," as the schooner's counter squattered down with a thud and a splash into a deep hollow, and then rolled so heavily and so suddenly to starboard that we both gathered way and went with a run into the scuppers just in time to be drenched to the waist by the heavy fall of water that she dished in over her rail. This sort of thing soon gave us a taste of the Felicidad's quality, for so lightly was she framed that the heavy rolling strained her tremendously, and she began to make so much water that we were obliged to set the pumps going every two hours, while the creaking and complaining of her timbers and bulkheads raised a din that might have been heard half-a-mile away.

"As soon as the breeze comes," said Ryan, as we descended the companion-ladder to shift into dry clothes, "we will bear up and jog quietly in for Cape Lopez, which will give us a chance of being overhauled by something running in for either the Gaboon or the Ogowe, or of blundherin' up against something coming out from one or the other of those same rivers. If we don't fall in with annything by the time that we make the land, we will just stand on and take a look in here and there, beginning with the Ogowe and working our way northward gradually until we've thoroughly overhauled the whole of the Bight."

By the time that we were summoned below to dinner, the sky had become entirely overcast with heavy, black, thunderous-looking clouds that entirely-obscured the stars, and only allowed the light of the moon to sift feebly through; yet there was light enough to enable us to see our way about the deck, or to reveal to a sharp eye a sail as far away as seven or eight miles, had anything been within that distance. As we left the deck a quivering gleam of sheet-lightning flashed up along the western horizon, and Ryan gave Pierrepoint—who was taking the deck for me while I got my dinner—instructions to keep a sharp eye upon the weather, as there was no knowing how it might turn out. While we sat at table the lightning became more vivid and frequent; and after a while the dull, deep rumble of distant thunder was heard. Presently we heard Pierrepoint singing out to one of the boys to jump below and fetch up his oil-skins for him; and a minute or two later the sound of a heavy shower advancing over the water became audible, rapidly increasing in volume until it reached us, when in a moment we were almost deafened by the loud pelting of the rain upon the deck overhead as the overladen clouds discharged their burden with all the fierce vehemence of a truly tropical downpour.

At the first crash of the rain upon the deck Ryan and I both with one accord glanced hastily at the barometer that was hanging suspended in gimbals in the skylight; the mercury had dropped slightly, but not sufficient to arouse any uneasiness, and we therefore went quietly on with our dinner, although Ryan shouted across the table to me—

"When the rain comes before the wind, Halliards, sheets, and braces mind."

There was little danger, however, of our being caught unawares, for we had long ago clewed up and hauled down everything, except the boom-foresail and jib, to save the sails from thrashing themselves threadbare with the rolling of the ship; we consequently awaited the development of events with perfect equanimity. The downpour lasted perhaps three minutes, and then ceased with startling abruptness, leaving us in absolute silence save for the rush and splash of the water athwart the flooded decks with the now greatly diminished rolling of the schooner, the gurgle of the spouting scuppers, the kicking of the rudder upon its gudgeons, the groaning and complaining of the timbers, or the voices of the people on deck, and the soft patter of their bare feet upon the wet planks as they moved here and there. The shower had knocked the swell down very considerably, rendering the movements of the schooner much more easy than they had been, and we were able to finish our meal in peace and comfort without the continued necessity to steady the plate with one hand and the tumbler with the other, keeping a wary eye upon the viands meanwhile, in readiness to dodge any of them that might happen to fetch away in our direction, and snatching a mouthful or a sip in the brief intervals when the ship became comparatively steady.

When we again went on deck the sky presented a really magnificent spectacle, the vast masses of heavy, electrically-charged cloud being piled one above the other in a fashion that resembled, to me, nothing so much as a chaos of titanic rocks of every conceivable shape and colour, the forms and hues of the clouds being rendered distinctly visible by the incessant play of the sheet-lightning among their masses. Not only the whole sky, but the entire atmosphere seemed to be a-quiver with the silent electric discharges, and the effect was indescribably beautiful as the quick, tremulous flashes blazed out, now here, now there, strongly illumining one portion of the piled-up masses and the reflection in the glassy water with its transient radiance, while the rest of the scene was by contrast thrown into the deepest, blackest, most opaque shadow. Meanwhile the mutterings of the distant thunder had gradually grown louder and drawn nearer, while sudden, vivid flashes of forked or chain-lightning, golden, violet, or delicate rose-tinted, darted at ever-lessening intervals from the lowering masses of intensely black cloud heaped up along the western horizon.

We had been on deck perhaps half-an-hour, when a delicious coolness and freshness began by almost insensible degrees to pervade the hitherto intolerable closeness of the hot and enervating atmosphere, and, looking away to the westward, we saw, by the quick, flickering illumination of the lightning, a few transient cat's-paws playing here and there upon the surface of the water. Gradually and erratically these evanescent movements in the inert air stole down to the schooner, lightly rippling the water round her for an instant, just stirring the canvas with a faint rustle for a moment, and then dying away again. They were succeeded by others, however, with rapidly increasing frequency, and presently a faint blurr upon the glassy surface of the water to the westward marked the approach of the true breeze.

"Sheet home your topsail, and hoist away!" shouted Ryan. "Up with your helm, my man"—to the man at the tiller—"and let her go off east-south-east. Sheet home your topgallant-sail, and man the halliards. Lay aft here, some of you, to the braces, and lay the yards square. Well there, belay! Main throat and peak-halliards hoist away. Ease off the mainsheet. Rouse up the squaresail, Mr Dugdale, and set it, if you please. Well there with the throat-halliards; well with the peak; belay! Away aloft, one hand, and loose the gaff-topsail! Give her everything but the studding-sails while you are about it, Mr Dugdale; it will save the canvas from mildew if it does little else."

The breeze—a light air from about west—had by this time crept up to us, and under its vivifying influence the schooner had gathered way, and was soon creeping along at a speed of barely two and a half knots, which, however, rose to three and finally to five as the wind freshened, the sky meanwhile clearing as the heavy thunder-clouds drove away to leeward before the welcome breeze, until the sky was once more cloudless save for the mare's-tails that thickly overspread the blue, through which the stars blinked dimly, and the moon, with a big halo round her, poured her chastened radiance.

"By the powers," exclaimed Ryan, as we paced the deck together after the operation of making sail had been completed—"By the powers, but that dhrag of mine is a wondherful invention entirely! Do ye notice, Harry, me bhoy, how it's modherated the little huzzy's paces? Bedad, she's goin' along as sober as a Quaker girl to meetin' instead of waltzin' away like a ballet-dancer! But wait until one of those light-heeled picaroons comes along, and then won't we surprise thim above a bit! If it's not blowing too hard when ye come on deck in the middle watch ye may give her the stunsails; it'll look more ship-shape, and as if we were in a hurry to make the coast and get our cargo aboard, if we happen to be overhauled by anybody in the same line of business, and the deuce of a fear have I now of outsailing any of them that may happen to be in the neighbourhood. Keep a sharp look-out, Mr Pierrepoint, and if anything heaves in sight, either ahead or astern, during your watch, give me a call. I'm going below to turn in now."

I followed suit a minute or two later and, with my cabin-door wide open to freely admit the cool, welcome breeze that poured down through the open skylight, soon fell into a deep, refreshing sleep.



CHAPTER SIX.

A CAPTURE AND A CHASE.

When I went on deck at midnight I found that there was no occasion to set the studding-sails, for the breeze had freshened to more than half a gale, and the little hooker was staggering along before it and a fast-rising sea at a tremendous pace—considering the drag—with her royal clewed up and furled, and the gaff-topsail hauled down. Even thus she was being greatly over-driven; so, as there was no need for too much hurry, and as the sky astern had a hard, windy look, I took in the topgallant-sail, and hauled down and stowed the mainsail, letting her go along easily and comfortably for the remainder of the night. I had half a mind to further relieve her by getting the drag inboard, but did not like to do so without first consulting Ryan—since the thing was of his contrivance—so, as the matter was by no means sufficiently urgent to justify me in disturbing him, I let it remain, and very glad was I afterwards that I had done so; for when I went on deck again at seven bells, there, away about a point on our weather quarter, gleamed in the bright morning sunshine the white upper sails of a large craft that had been sighted at daybreak and that was now coming up to us fast. Ryan was already on deck, having been called immediately that the stranger was made out, and was in a state of high glee at the success of his stratagem, for he informed me that he had been up on the topsail-yard, and had pretty well satisfied himself, both by the look of the craft and the course she was steering, that she was a slaver running in upon the coast to pick up a cargo.

It now became a nice question with us whether we should reveal our true character as soon as the stranger should have approached within reach of our guns, or whether we should try to follow her in, and, lying in wait for her, seize her as she came out with her cargo on board. We were still at a considerable distance from the coast—some twelve hundred miles—and that fact inclined us strongly to make short work of her by showing our colours and bringing her to as soon as she should come abreast of us; while, on the other hand, there was the chance that by following her in we might fall in with something more valuable than herself.

We were still weighing the pros and the cons of this important question, when the look-out aloft—for Ryan had only half-an-hour previously determined to have a look-out maintained from the topgallant-yard between the hours of sunrise and sunset—the look-out, I say, reported a sail broad on our starboard bow, standing to the northward on a taut bowline, and under a heavy press of sail. She was as yet invisible from the deck; my superior officer and I therefore with one accord made a dash for our telescopes, and, having secured them, hastened forward and made our way up the fore-rigging to the topsail-yard, on to which we swung ourselves at the same moment. From this elevated view-point the upper half of the stranger's topmasts and all above were just visible clear of the horizon; and, bringing our glasses to bear upon her, we made her out to be a barque-rigged vessel under single—reefed topsails, courses, jib, fore and main-topmast-staysails, and spanker; her yards, which were pretty nearly square on to us, showed a quite unusual amount of spread for a merchant vessel, and the rapidity with which she altered her bearings and forged athwart our forefoot was conclusive evidence that she was a remarkably speedy craft. For a moment it occurred to us that she might possibly be a cruiser belonging to one or another of the nations who had undertaken to share with Great Britain the noble task of suppressing the inhuman slave-traffic; but a very little reflection sufficed to disabuse our minds of this idea, for no cruiser would have been carrying so heavy a press of canvas as she was showing, in the teeth of what had by this time become almost a gale, unless she were in chase of something, and, had she been, we must have seen it. Besides, although everything looked trim and ship-shape enough so far as her spars, sails, and rigging were concerned, there were evidences even there of a certain lack of discipline and order that would hardly have been tolerated on board a man-o'-war of any nation, although most of the foreigners were a great deal more free and easy in that respect than ourselves. The conclusion at which we ultimately arrived, therefore, was that she was a slaver with her cargo on board, and "carrying-on" to make a quick passage.

But, fast as she was travelling, we were going through the water still faster, despite our drag, for we were carrying the wind almost square over our taffrail, and Ryan, in order the more thoroughly to hoodwink the craft astern, had double-reefed and set our big mainsail, as though we had been somewhat suspicious of her character, and anxious to keep her at as great a distance as possible; we were therefore foaming along at a speed of fully eight knots, and rising the stranger ahead so rapidly, that when she crossed our hawse she was not more than eight miles distant, and we had a clear view of her from our topsail-yard. She now hoisted Spanish colours; and we, not to be outdone in politeness, did the same, as also did the craft astern of us, each of us, I suppose, accepting the exhibition of bunting on board the others for just what it was worth.

Ryan and I had by this time pretty well made up our minds as to the character of both our neighbours; and as the stranger astern—a large brig—was now barely half-a-mile distant from us, and drawing rapidly up on our starboard quarter, it was necessary to make up our minds without delay as to the course to be pursued; the question being whether we should meddle at all with the brig, and thus run the risk of exciting the barque's suspicions, or whether we should devote our whole energies to the pursuit of the latter. I was all for letting the brig go, for we knew, by the course she was steering, that she had no slaves on board, and the chances were even that we should find nothing else on board her sufficiently compromising to secure her condemnation by the Mixed Commission. Ryan, on the other hand, could not make up his mind to let the chance go by of making two prizes instead of one.

"'A bird in hand is worth two in the bush, Harry, me bhoy,'" he remarked to me as we stood together near the binnacle, watching the approach of the brig, which was now foaming along not a quarter of a mile away from us; "and I look upon that brig as being quite as much in our hand as though you and I stood upon her quarter-deck, with all her crew safe under hatches. Steady there!" he continued, to the man at the tiller; "mind your weather-helm, my man, or you'll be having that mainsail jibing over, and I need not tell you what that means in a breeze like this. Don't meet her quite so sharply; if she seems inclined to take a sheer to starboard, let her go; I will take care that the brig does not run over us. Just look at her," he went on, turning again to me, "isn't she a beauty? Why, she's almost as handsome, and as big too, as the Mercedes! D'ye mean to tell me that such a hull as that would ever be employed in the humdrum trade of carrying palm-oil? Why, it would be nothing short of a waste of skilful modelling! No, sorr, she was built for a slaver, and a slaver she is, or I'll eat this hat of mine, puggaree and all, for breakfast!"

"I grant all that you say," admitted I, "but if she has nothing incriminating on board her, what then? We shall only be wasting our time by boarding her, while we shall certainly give the alarm to the barque yonder, and, as likely as not, lose her for our pains."

Ryan took a good long look at the barque, that was now about two points before our larboard beam, and some six miles distant, thrashing along in a style that did one's heart good to see, and plunging into the heavy head-sea, against which she was beating until her foresail was dark with wet half-way up the weather-leech, and the spray was flying clean over her, and drifting away like smoke to leeward. Then he turned and looked at the brig on our opposite quarter.

"It's risky," he remarked to me through his set teeth, "but, by the powers, I'll chance it! If we happen to be mistaken, why, I'll make the skipper a handsome apology; if he's a true man, that ought to satisfy him. Mr Bartlett"—to the boatswain—"cast off that drag and get it inboard over the port-rail with as little fuss as may be, so that if those fellows in the brig are watching us they may not know what we're about; I want to keep that conthrivance a saycret as long as I can. Be as smart as you like about it. Mr Dugdale, I want twenty men to arm themselves forthwith, and then creep into the waist under the lee of the starboard bulwarks, taking care that they are not seen; pick me out the best men in the ship, if you please. Ah, here is Gowland, the very man I wanted to see! Mr Gowland, you see that brig—" and as I turned away to muster the men, and see that they were properly armed, he drew Gowland away to the other side of the deck, and began to communicate something to him in a very rapid, earnest manner.

By the time that the drag had been got inboard and stowed away, I had picked out the required men, and had contrived to get them by twos and threes under the starboard bulwarks without—so far as I knew—being seen by those on board the brig, watching the roll of the schooner and giving the word for the men to pass up through the scuttle and make a crouching run for it as the schooner rolled to port and hid her deck from the brig. That craft had by this time overhauled us, and was far enough ahead to permit of our reading her name—the Conquistador, of Havana—upon her stern; while our helmsman, taking Ryan's hint, had steered so wildly, that he had sheered the schooner almost to within biscuit-toss of her neighbour. Meanwhile, now that the drag was no longer impeding us, we were gradually lessening the small space of water that separated us from the brig, and we could see that the schooner and her movements were exciting much curiosity and speculation, if not actual suspicion, in the minds of three men who stood right aft on her monkey-poop, intently watching us.

"Go for'ard and hail them," said Ryan to me; "I want to get a little closer if I can without unduly exciting their suspicions. You can affect to be deaf if you like; perhaps that will give us a chance."

I took the speaking-trumpet in my hand and, clambering leisurely into the fore-rigging, hailed in Spanish—

"Ho, the brig ahoy! what brig is that?"

"The Conquistador, of Havana," was the reply. "What schooner is that?"

I turned to one of the men who was standing near me and asked, in the most natural manner in the world, "What did he say?"

"The Conkistee—something, of Hawaner, it sounded like to me, sir," answered the man.

"What did you say?" I yelled at the brig, raising the trumpet again to my mouth.

"The Con-quist-a-dor, of Havana. What schooner is that?"

I assumed the most utter look of bewilderment I could upon the spur of the moment, and then, waving my arm impatiently at our helmsman to sheer still closer alongside the brig, whose quarter was now fair abreast of our fore-rigging, repeated my question—

"What did you say?"

My interlocutor, who was evidently the skipper of the brig, stamped on the deck with vexation as he raised his hands to his mouth, and yelled at the top of his voice—

"The Con-quist-a-dor, of Havana! Do not sheer so close to me, if you please, senor. You will be foul of me if you do not look out!"

"That will do, Mr Dugdale," shouted Ryan in English, to the evident astonishment and consternation of the brig's people, "we can manage now. Stand by to jump aboard with me. I shall want you to act as interpreter, for the deuce a word do I understand of their confounded lingo."

And as he spoke he waved his hand to the helmsman, while at the same moment Gowland, who stood close by, hauled down the Spanish and ran up the British ensign to our peak. There was a shout of dismay from those on board the brig, and a quick trampling of feet as her crew rushed to their stations and hurriedly threw the coiled-up braces, halliards, and sheets off the pins with some confused notion of doing something to evade us even at the last moment. But they were altogether too late; Somers, the quarter-master, who had seen what was afoot, and had gradually worked his way aft, sprang to the tiller, and jamming it over to port, sheered us very cleverly alongside the brig in the wake of her main-rigging, into which Ryan and I instantly leaped, followed by our twenty armed men. The surprise was so sudden and so complete that there was no time for resistance, even had the Spaniards been disposed to offer any, and in another moment we had reached the brig's deck and she was in our possession, the schooner instantly sheering off again to a short distance in order that the two craft might not do any damage to each other.

Having taken so very decisive a step as to board and carry the brig, there was now of course nothing for us but to go through with the affair in the same high-handed fashion. I therefore demanded at once to see the ship's papers; and after many indignant protests they were produced and flung down upon the cabin table for our inspection. These fully established the identity of the brig; and as an examination of her hold revealed that she was fitted with a slave-deck, large coppers for the preparation of food for the unfortunate blacks her captain hoped to secure, a stock of water, and farina ample enough to meet the wants of a large "cargo," and an abundance of slave-irons, we were fully justified in taking possession of her, which we did forthwith. Half-an-hour sufficed for us to secure our capture and put a prize-crew on board under Gowland's command, and we then parted company; the brig to stand on for an hour as she was going—so as not to needlessly alarm the barque—and then to haul up and shape a course for Sierra Leone, while we at once hauled our wind in pursuit of our new quarry, which bore by this time well upon our port-quarter—as we had hitherto been going— with her topsails just showing above the horizon.

We had no sooner trimmed sail in chase of the barque than we found, to our unspeakable gratification, that we were still far enough to windward to lay well up for her, she being at the commencement of the chase not more than a point and a half upon our weather bow, while, from the superiority of our rig, we were able to look quite that much higher than she did. The question now was whether, in the strong wind and heavy sea that we had to contend against, we could hold our own with a craft so much more powerful than ourselves.

We had of course taken the precaution to get down a couple of reefs in our topsail, and the same in the foresail, as well as to haul down the squaresail and get the bonnet off the jib before leaving the Conquistador, but it was not until we had hauled our wind and put the schooner on a taut bowline, that we were able to realise how hard it was actually blowing. Up to then the wind had seemed no more to us than a brisk, pleasant breeze, while the schooner rode the long, creaming surges lightly as a gull. Now, however, we had to doff our straw hats in a hurry to save them from being blown away, and to don close-fitting cloth caps instead, as well as our oil-skins, while it was positively hard work to cross the deck against the wind. As for the schooner, she behaved like a mad thing, careening to her gunwale as she soared to the crest of a wave and cleft its foaming summit in a blinding deluge of spray that swept her decks from the weather cat-head right aft to the companion, and plunging next moment into the trough with a strong roll to windward, and a very bedlam of yells and shrieks aloft as the gale swept between her straining masts and rigging. She shuddered as if terrified at every headlong plunge that she took, while the milk-white spume brimmed to the level of her figure-head, and roared away from her bows in a whole acre of boiling, glistening foam. The creaking and groaning of her timbers and bulkheads raised such a din that a novice would have been quite justified in fearing that the little hooker was rapidly straining herself to pieces, while more than one crash of crockery below, faintly heard through the other multitudinous sounds, told us that the wild antics of the barkie were making a very pretty general average among our domestic utensils. But, with all her creaking and groaning, the schooner now proved herself to be a truly superb sea-boat, scarcely shipping so much as a bucketful of green water, despite the merciless manner in which we were driving her; and the way in which she surmounted sea after sea, turning up her streaming weather-bow to receive its buffet, and gaily "shaking her feathers" after every plunge, was enough to make a sailor's heart leap with pride and exultation that was not to be lessened even by the awe-inspiring spectacle of the mountains of water that in continuous procession soared up from beneath her keel and went roaring away to leeward with foaming crests that towered to the height of the cross-trees.

Our first anxiety, of course, was to ascertain whether we were gaining upon the chase, or whether she was maintaining her distance from us; as soon, therefore, as we had secured our morning altitude of the sun for the determination of the longitude, we measured as accurately as we could the angle subtended by that portion of the barque's main-mast which showed above the horizon. The task was one of very considerable difficulty owing to the violent motion of the two craft, and when we had done our best we were by no means satisfied with the result, but we thought it might possibly be some help to us; so when we had at length agreed upon the actual value of the angle, we clamped our instruments, and, taking them below, stowed them carefully away in our bunks, where there was not much danger of their coming to harm through the frantic plunging of the schooner, our purpose of course being to compare the angle then obtained with another to be measured an hour or two later. If the second angle should prove to be greater than the first, it would show that we had gained on the chase; if, on the contrary, it should prove to be less, it would show that the chase had increased her distance from us. It was shortly before noon when we again brought our sextants on deck, opinion being meanwhile strongly divided as to whether or not we were gaining; some asserting positively that we were, while others as stoutly maintained that we were not. But even our sextants failed to settle the question, for if there was any difference at all in the angle, it was too minute for detection, and we were left in almost the same state of suspense as before. The only relief afforded us was the assurance that we were practically holding our own with the barque, and that unless the weather grew still worse than it was, we stood a fairly good chance of catching her eventually. One thing was certain; light as our draught of water was, and small as was the schooner's area of lateral resistance compared with that of the barque, we were slowly but certainly eating our way out upon her weather quarter, her main and foremasts having been visible to leeward of her mizenmast when the chase commenced, while now they just showed clear of each other to windward, thus conclusively demonstrating that we were gaining the weather-gauge of her, despite the heavy sea. This was certainly a most comforting reflection, and greatly helped to console us for the otherwise slow progress that we were making in the chase. Ryan seemed to be the most disappointed man among us all; he was very impetuous and hot-headed; he liked to do everything on the instant and with a rush; and upon the discovery that we were not gaining perceptibly, he muttered something about giving the schooner more canvas. Luckily, before giving the order he paused long enough to allow the fact to be borne in upon him that the masts were already whipping and bending like fishing-rods, and the gear taxed to its utmost capacity of resistance; and being, despite the characteristics above-mentioned, a reasonably prudent and careful officer, the sight restrained him, and he forbore to attempt anything so risky as the further over-driving of the already greatly over-driven craft.

Not so with the skipper of the barque. It was, of course, impossible for us to know whether he had observed the capture of the Conquistador—we hoped and believed not; but, however that may have been, it was certain that he had been keeping his eyes sufficiently open to promptly become aware of the fact that the schooner had altered her course and was standing after him under a very heavy press of sail, and if our surmises as to his character were anywhere near the truth, that circumstance alone would be quite sufficient to fully arouse his easily-awakened apprehensions and to urge him to keep us at arm's-length at all risks. Be that as it may, we had just made it noon when the quarter-master called our attention to the fact that the barque's people had loosed their main-topgallant-sail and were sheeting it home over the double-reefed topsail. It was an imprudent thing to do, however, for the sail had scarcely been set ten minutes when the topgallant-mast went over the side, snapped short off by the cap. Her skipper instantly availed himself of the pretext afforded by this accident to bear away three or four points while clearing the wreck, his object doubtless being to determine beyond all question whether we really were after him or not; and if this was his purpose, we did not leave him long in doubt upon the point, our own helm being put up the instant that we saw what he was about. Realising, by this move on our part, the true state of affairs, he now squared dead away before the wind, shook out all his reefs, and set his fore-topgallant-sail, as well as topmast and lower studding-sails. This was piling on the canvas with a vengeance, but Ryan was not the man to be bluffed by any such move as that; every glass we had was now levelled at the barque, and no sooner were her people seen in the rigging than away went our own, and so much smarter were our people than those belonging to the barque, that our own studding-sails were set and dragging like cart-horses while theirs were still being sent aloft. This experiment was tried for about half-an-hour, by which time it became evident that the schooner was fully as good off the wind as was the barque, if not a trifle better; she seemed to fairly fly, while at times, when the breeze happened to freshen a trifle, it really seemed as though she would be lifted out of the water altogether; and I am quite persuaded that but for the preventers we had rigged for the purpose of relieving the masts when she was rolling so heavily during the preceding calm—and which still remained aloft and were doing splendid service—we must have lost both our sticks and been reduced to a sheer hulk long before the half-hour had expired.

I have said that we were doing quite as well as, if not a trifle better than, the barque; for while we held our own with her, so that she was unable to appreciably alter her bearing from us, we were steadily edging up toward her, our gain in this respect being so great that ere the next manoeuvre was at tempted we had risen her high enough to get a momentary glimpse of the whole length of her rail when she floated up on the crest of a sea. It was clear, therefore, that the barque had gained nothing by running off the wind; on the contrary, we had neared her fully a mile; her skipper, therefore, having given the unsuccessful experiment a fair trial, suddenly took in all his studding-sails again, reduced his canvas once more to a couple of reefs, and braced sharp up to the wind, as before. But here again we had the advantage of him through the superior smartness of our own crew, for he no sooner began to shorten sail than we did the same, handling our canvas so quickly that we were ready nearly five minutes before him, the result being that we had gained another half-mile upon him and had placed ourselves a good quarter of a mile upon his weather quarter by the time that he had sweated up his top sail-halliards. We now felt that, barring accidents, the barque was ours; she could escape us neither to leeward nor to windward. Instead, therefore, of continuing to jam the schooner as close into the wind's eye as she would sail, with the object of weathering out on the barque, we pointed the little vixen's jib-boom fair and square at the chase, checked the sheets and braces a few inches fore and aft, and put her along for all that she was worth.

It is astonishing to note the advantageous effect that is produced upon the sailing of a ship when it becomes possible to check the sheets and braces even a few paltry inches; it was distinctly noticeable in the case of the schooner; her movements were perceptibly freer and easier, she no longer drove her keen cut-water into the heart of the seas, receiving their blows upon the rounding of her weather bow with a force sufficient to shake her from stem to stern and almost to stop her way for an appreciable instant of time; she now slid smoothly up the breast of the wave, taking its stroke fairly in the wake of the fore-rigging, where it had little or no retarding effect upon her, surmounted its crest with a long, easy roll, and then sank with equal smoothness down into the trough, along which she sped lightly and swiftly as a petrel. It added a good half-a-knot to her speed.

It was soon apparent that even this comparatively trifling advantage on our part had not escaped the notice of our wary friend the skipper of the barque; it suggested to him yet one more experiment, and he was not slow to make it, keeping his ship away about a point and a half and checking his braces accordingly. This proved very much more satisfactory so far as he was concerned; for by four bells in the afternoon watch we had lost sight of the barque's hull again, and it was unmistakably evident that she was increasing her distance from us. We held on, however, straight after her, as before; for although it was undeniable that she was now drawing away from us, it was but slowly; it would take her a good many hours to run us out of sight at that rate, and we felt pretty confident that when the weather moderated—which we hoped would be before long, as the glass indicated a slight rising tendency—we should have her at our mercy. Meanwhile, however, we felt that we must not count our chickens before they were hatched; for there would be nearly an hour and a half of darkness between sunset and moonrise, and in that time our crafty friend would be pretty certain to attempt some new trickery if there seemed a ghost of a chance of its proving successful.



CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE SLAVER'S RUSE.

The sun set that night in a broad bank of horizontal, mottled grey cloud, through which his beams darted in golden splendour at brief intervals for nearly half-an-hour after we had lost sight of the great luminary himself; and just about the time that the spars and canvas of the distant barque began to grow indistinct in the fast-gathering dusk of evening, there occurred a noticeable decrease in the strength of the wind, with every prospect of a tolerably fine night. Of course our glasses were never off the chase for more than five minutes at a time, but up to the moment when it became impossible to any longer distinguish the movements of those on board, no attempt to increase her spread of canvas had been observed. Whether by this apparent apathy her people hoped to lull us into a condition of equal carelessness, it is of course impossible for me to say; but, if so, they signally failed, for immediately that the barque's outline faded into an indistinct blur in the growing darkness, we went to work and shook out a reef all round, never doubting but that they were at that moment doing precisely the same thing. And our supposition was most probably correct—Ryan, indeed, who had sent for his night-glass and brought it to bear upon her, declared that he could detect an increase in the area of her shadowy canvas—for even after we had made sail we could not perceive that we were in any wise decreasing the distance between the two vessels.

As the swift, tropical night shut down upon us every eye in the ship became strained to its utmost power in the effort to keep sight of the chase, for now that there could no longer be any doubt in the minds of her people that we were after them, we felt convinced that should an opportunity present itself for them to elude us in the darkness they would assuredly embrace it; and, being new to the coast and to the service, as most of us were, we had yet to learn by vexatious experience the fertility of resource which had been developed in the slave-trafficking fraternity by the unflagging pursuit to which they were subjected by the slave-squadron, and of which they never missed a chance to avail themselves. We had heard many an amusing story of the extraordinarily clever devices that these gentry had resorted to—very often successfully—in their endeavours to elude pursuit, and while we had laughed heartily at the recital of them, or commented admiringly upon their ingenuity, as the case might be, we had no fancy for further illustrating in our own persons their superiority in the art of mystification. And we were rendered all the more anxious by the fact that with nightfall the sky became overspread with a thin canopy of cloud that, while not sufficiently dense to wholly obscure the stars, so dimmed their lustre that it became difficult to distinguish, even through our night-glasses, the forms of the waves at a greater distance than half-a-mile; while as for the chase, we were at length reluctantly compelled to admit to each other that we had lost sight of her altogether, or at least that we could not be absolutely certain whether we could still see her or not; sometimes we were confident that we could, at other times we utterly failed to make her out.

It was while we were in this painful condition of uncertainty that Ryan—who like myself had remained on deck, diligently working away with his glass, and utterly deaf to the more than once repeated statement of the steward that the dinner was on the cabin table—turned quickly to me and said—

"Do you see that greenish-looking star just glimmering through the clouds right over our jib-boom end? Here, stand exactly where I am, and when she pitches you will see it showing about ten degrees above the horizon. There! do you see the star I mean?"

"Yes," said I, catching sight of the pale green glimmer as he placed me in position. "Yes, I see it. What of it?"

"Just carry your eye from it down to the horizon at an angle of about forty-five degrees in an easterly direction, and tell me if you see anything particular."

I did so, and after two or three attempts thought I caught a faint gleam like the light of a lamp shining through a red curtain.

"Yes," I answered, "I fancy I can just make out a dim something." And I described what I saw.

"Precisely!" exclaimed Ryan delightedly. "There! now I have it in my glass—no, it is gone again—this jump of a sea renders it almost impossible to use one's telescope on the deck of such a lively little hooker as this—not that I've a word to say against her, God bless her, she's a beauty, every inch of her, but I wish she'd remain steady for a second or two. There, I have it again! Yes, it's a light in the barque's after-cabin. They've drawn the curtains, never suspecting that the light would show through. Yes, there's no mistake about it, I can see it quite plainly now; upon my word I believe we are overhauling her now that the breeze has dropped a bit. Mr Pierrepoint, d'ye see that light?"

"Where away, sir?"

It was pointed out to the lad, and after some searching and prying—for it was so very dim that it was almost impossible to distinguish it with the naked eye—he caught sight of it.

"Very well, then," remarked Ryan, with a return to his old, humorous manner that showed how great a relief to him was the appearance of the faint ruddy gleam, "keep your eye upon it, my bhoy, until I give ye a shpell. Mr Dugdale and Oi are now goin' below to dinner, and if ye lose soight of that loight, bedad I'll—I'll keelhaul ye, ye shpalpeen. He's edgin' away off the wind, d'ye see, the blagguard! I wouldn't be surprised if he was to up helm and shquare away before it in a minute or two, hopin' to run us out of soight before the moon rises, so don't let your oye go off that light for a single inshtant if ye value your shkin. Keep her away a bit"—to the man at the helm—"let her go off a point! So! steady as you go! There, Masther Freddy, the light is right forninst your jib-boom end now. Mind that ye kape it there. We're certainly gaining on her." And, patting the lad affectionately on the shoulder, the warm-hearted Irishman turned and beckoned me to follow him down into the cabin.

We had been below about half-an-hour, and were getting well forward with our dinner, when we heard the voices of Pierrepoint and the quarter-master in earnest conversation over the open skylight, and an occasional word or two that reached us seemed to indicate that they were in doubt about something. We both pricked up our ears a little; and presently we heard Pierrepoint ejaculate in a tone of impatience and with a stamp of his foot on the deck—

"I'll be shot if I can understand it at all, Somers; I shall call the captain."

"I really think I would, sir, if I was you. I don't believe that's the barque at all; it's some circumwenting trick that they've been playing us, that's my opinion!"

At this Ryan started to his feet and, hailing through the skylight, asked—

"What is the matter, Mr Pierrepoint; have you lost sight of the light?"

"No, sir," answered poor Freddy, in a tone of distress; "the light is still straight ahead of us, and we seem to be nearing it fast, but I can't make out anything like the loom of the sails or hull of the barque, and if she is there I think we ought to see her by this time. The red light shows quite plainly in the glass."

"I will join you on deck and have a look at it," exclaimed Ryan; and, rising from the table, he sprang up the companion-ladder three steps at a time, I following close at his heels.

Yes; there was the light, sure enough, right ahead of us; and a glance aloft as well as the feel of the breeze on our faces told us in an instant that the schooner had been further kept away, and was now running well off the wind, although the change had been so gradual that we had not noticed it while sitting in the cabin. Ryan took the glass from Pierrepoint and brought it to bear on the light.

"Yes," he remarked, with the telescope still at his eye, "that is the light, beyond a doubt; but, as you say, Mr Pierrepoint, I can see no sign of the barque herself. Yet she must be there, for that light is obviously moving, and I observe that you have, very properly, kept away to follow it. Surely," he continued, with an accent of impatience and perplexity, "we have not been following some other craft that has hove above the horizon since the darkness set in? And, even so, I can see nothing of the craft herself. Obviously, however, we are nearing the light—whatever it is—fast, for I can see it quite distinctly in the glass, I even fancy that I can see it rising and falling. Take the glass, Dugdale, and tell me what you can make of it."

I took the glass, and, after a long and patient scrutiny of the mysterious light, pronounced my opinion.

"To me, sir," said I, "it has the appearance of an ordinary ship's lantern wrapped in a strip of red bunting and hung from a pole, or something of that sort. For, if you will look at it closely, you will notice that it sways with the wash of the sea, and now and then seems to swing for an instant behind a slender object like a light spar. But I could almost take my oath that there is no barque or any other kind of craft there."

Once again Ryan took the telescope, and after a further prolonged scrutiny, he exclaimed—

"By the powers, but I believe you are right, and if so we have been done! It certainly has very much the appearance that you describe. But what in the world can it be? It is a moving object, beyond all doubt, for see how we have been obliged to run off the wind in chase of it! However, we are close to it now, for I can make out the swinging of the lantern—and a lantern it is—with the naked eye. It is some confounded contrivance for leading us astray, that is what it is! But since we are so close to it, we may as well ascertain its character, if only to be awake to the trick if it ever happens to be played upon us a second time. Hands by the braces here, and stand by to back the topsail. And get two or three lanterns ready to swing over the side, so that we may see just exactly what the thing is."

We had by this time approached the mysterious object so nearly that another three or four minutes sufficed to bring it within a couple of hundred feet of the schooner's weather bow, when the topsail was laid to the mast, and our way checked sufficiently to permit of a careful examination of the thing, whatever it was. By the time that we had forged ahead far enough to bring it on our weather beam it was close aboard of us, and then the light of our lanterns disclosed the nature of the contrivance by which we had been so cleverly tricked. It was in fact nothing more than a raft composed of five nine-inch planks laid parallel to each other with a space of about a foot between each, and firmly secured together by a couple of stout cross-pieces nailed athwart the whole concern. The fore-ends of the planks had been sawn away to the shape of a sharp wedge to facilitate the movement of the raft through the water, and on the foremost cross-piece had been rigged an oar for a mast, upon which was set a hastily-contrived squaresail, made out of a piece of old tarpaulin. To the head of the mast was securely lashed an old lantern with a short length of candle, still burning, in it; the lantern being cunningly draped in red bunting to represent the appearance of a lamp shining through a curtain. And the whole contrivance was rendered self-steering by the attachment of a few fathoms of line to the after-end of the middle plank, at the other extremity of which a drogue, consisting of a short length of plank, was attached. This drogue had the effect of keeping the raft running dead before the wind, and it travelled at a very respectable pace, too—quite five knots an hour, we estimated its speed at—for the sail was quite a big one for so small an affair; and since we had been steering for it for just about an hour, it meant that we had been decoyed some five miles to leeward of our proper course.

The question now was: Where was the barque? It did not take us very long to make up our minds upon this point. It was pretty evident that since her skipper had been at so much pains to entice us away down to leeward, he would have held his wind all this time; and to windward therefore must we look for him. Whether, however, he had tacked and stood away to the westward immediately after launching his raft, or whether he had held on upon the port tack to the northward, we could not possibly tell, for a diligent and prolonged use of our night-glasses failed to reveal the slightest indication of his whereabouts. Ryan, however, was not long in arriving upon a conclusion in the matter. He argued that if he had tacked we ought also to tack forthwith, because, if we stood on as we were going until the moon rose, we might run out of sight of him; whereas, if he had not tacked, he would be at that moment somewhere about broad on our weather bow. If therefore he had tacked, we should be doing the right thing to tack also, since we should then be standing directly after him; while if he had not tacked, we should still be doing right to heave about, since even in that case we should probably see something of him from our mast-head when the moon rose, as she would in less than half-an-hour. We therefore at once put the helm down and hove round on the starboard tack, keeping the schooner as close to the wind as she would lie, while still allowing her to go along through the water.

A faint brightening in the sky by and by announced the welcome approach of the moon upon the scene; and shortly afterwards the beautiful planet herself, considerably shrunken from her full-orbed splendour, rose slowly into view above the horizon, her curtailed disc showing of a deep, ruddy orange-colour through the dense, humid vapours of the lower atmosphere. Two hands were at once sent up to the topgallant-yard to take a look round; but even after they had been there an hour—by which time the moon had risen high enough to give us plenty of light—they failed to discover any sign of the barque or anything else; and we were at length reluctantly compelled to admit that we had been very cleverly tricked, and that our cunning neighbour had fairly given us the slip.

"But I'll not give him up, even now!" exclaimed Ryan, when this conviction had fairly forced itself upon us. "Come down below, Dugdale, and let us reason this thing out."

We accordingly descended to our snug little cabin and seated ourselves at the table, Ryan producing a sheet of paper, a scale, and a pencil wherewith to graphically illustrate our line of reasoning.

"Now, here," said he, drawing an arrow near one margin of the paper, "is the wind, coming out at west as nearly as may be; and here," laying the scale upon the paper, measuring off a distance, and making two pencil dots, "are the positions of the barque and the schooner when the former was last seen. Now, I estimate that the barque was going about eight and a half knots, and we were reeling off nine by the log at that time; and this state of affairs continued at least until the light was seen, which was about half-an-hour after we lost sight of our friend. Consequently, when the light was first seen, the schooner was here"— making another dot—"and the barque there," making a fourth.

"Now, what would the blagguard be most likely to do when he had safely launched his raft? He knew that it would go skimming away to leeward, taking us with it; and I therefore think it most probable that he would tack at once, going off in this direction," laying down a line upon the paper. "Meanwhile, the raft went scudding away to leeward until we met it there," making another dot. "Then we tacked, and, laying a point higher than he can, stood along this line," ruling one carefully in as he spoke. "Now, we have been travelling along this line, say an hour and a quarter, which brings us here. But where is the barque? If she had tacked, and continued to stand on until now, she would be there, eleven or twelve miles away, and we should see her. Supposing, however, that she continued to stand on as she was going when we last saw her, she would now be there, twenty-eight miles away! Phew! I was a long way out of my reckoning when I thought that we should still have her in sight, even if we tacked. We've lost her, Harry, my bhoy, and that's a fact. However, we know where she's bound to, and that's the island of Cuba, or I'm a Dutchman. Very well. Having given us the slip she will make the best of her way there without further delay; and it is my opinion that if she is still standing to the northward she will not continue to do so for very much longer, because, d'ye see, my bhoy, she'll be afraid of falling in with some of our cruisers if she stands in too close to the coast. Therefore, as we can hug the wind closer than she can, we'll just stand on as we are going for a day or two longer, or until the wind changes—in fact, we will shape a course for Cuba—and if we don't fall in with her again within the next seventy-two hours I shall give her up. Meanwhile the wind is dropping fast, so we will get some more muslin upon the little hooker."

As Ryan had said, the wind was dropping fast, so rapidly, indeed, that when eight bells was struck at midnight the schooner was under all the canvas that we could set, and even then was only creeping along at a speed of some two and a half knots per hour. Oh, how fervently we wished then that we could see even as much as the mere mastheads of the barque! for we felt certain that in such a light air the schooner would make short work of overtaking her. But nothing hove in sight; and when the next morning dawned we were still alone upon the face of the vast ocean.

With the rising of the sun the small draught of air that still remained to us fell dead; and we had it calm the whole day and well on into the succeeding night. Then the weather became unsettled and thundery, with light baffling airs interspersed with fierce squalls from all quarters of the compass, during which we made scarcely sixty miles in the twenty-four hours.

It was about midnight of the third day after we had lost sight of the barque, and the seventy-two hours that Ryan had allowed himself in which to find her again were fully spent, without affording us another glimpse of her. All hands, from Ryan himself down to the smallest boy in the ship, were dreadfully disgusted and crestfallen at our want of success; and we were only waiting for a breeze to spring up from somewhere to enable us to shape a course back to our cruising ground. The weather, however, was still very overcast and lowering, with signs not wanting that another heavy thunderstorm was brewing, which would probably bring us the desired breeze. There was not much swell running, but sufficient, nevertheless, to tumble the schooner about a good deal; and I had accordingly taken it upon myself to clew up, haul down, and furl every stitch of canvas, in order to save the sails from battering themselves to rags. The thunder had been gradually working up ever since sunset, and in fact even before that, and when eight bells struck at midnight, and my watch below came round, the weather had such a curious and portentous look, and the atmosphere was moreover so close and heavy, that I determined to stretch myself out "all standing" on the stern grating instead of going below, so that I might be all ready in case my presence should be required.

It was shortly after two bells when Pierrepoint came and roused me out with the remark—

"I am sorry to disturb you, Dugdale, but I think it is going to rain very shortly, and if you remain there you stand a very good chance of getting soaked to the skin. And what do you think of the weather? Is it merely a thunder-squall that has been brewing all this time, or what is it? Just look at those clouds overhead, their edges look quite red, as though there was a fire somewhere behind them. Do you think I should call the captain?"

It was as he had said. The sky was banked up from horizon to zenith, all round, with enormous cloud-piles, black as ink in the body of them, but their fringes or edges, which had a curiously tattered appearance, were of a distinct fiery red hue. All this time there was not a breath of wind save what was created by the schooner as she rolled heavily on the gathering swell; not a sound save those which arose within her as the bulkheads and timbers creaked and groaned dismally, the cabin-doors rattled, the rudder kicked as the water swirled and gurgled about it and under her counter with the heave of her, and the jerk of the spars aloft, or the slatting of the braces as she swayed, pendulum-like, from side to side.

"What does the glass say?" inquired I, in response to Pierrepoint's last question. I walked to the open skylight and peered down through it at the barometer, the tube of which was just sufficiently illuminated by the turned-down cabin lamp to permit of its condition being noted. It had fallen an inch since I last looked at it, during my watch on deck!

"Phew!" ejaculated I, "there must surely be something the matter with the thing; it can never have fallen that much in scarcely two hours!"

I hurried below and, turning up the lamp, subjected the instrument to a careful examination; but, as far as I could make out, there seemed to be nothing wrong with it; the fall had all the appearance of being perfectly genuine. But, whether or not, it was certain that the captain ought at once to be made acquainted with the state of affairs; I therefore went forthwith to his cabin and aroused him.

"Ay, ay," he answered sleepily, to my call. "What is it, Mr Dugdale? Has the barque hove in sight?"

"No such luck, sir, I am sorry to say," replied I. "But I think you ought to know that the weather has a very peculiar and threatening appearance; and the glass has dropped a full inch within the last two hours."

"An inch?" ejaculated Ryan, starting up in his bunk. "An inch? Surely, Dugdale, you must be mistaken!"

"Indeed, sir, I am not," said I. "I examined the barometer very carefully, and satisfied myself that I had made no mistake before calling you."

"By Jove, then, it is high time that I was on deck!" exclaimed he, leaping out of his bunk. "Just put a match to my lamp, Harry, my lad, will ye; you will find a box there on the shelf. Is there any wind?"

"Not a breath, sir; but I shall not be surprised if we have a great deal more than we want before long," I answered.

"Um!" said he. "Well, almost anything short of a hurricane would be better than these exasperating calms. The swell seems to have risen a bit since I turned in, hasn't it?"

"Quite perceptibly," said I, "and it seems to be coming more out from the northward than at first."

"Well," said he, thrusting his bare feet into his slippers, "let us go on deck and take a look round."

And, he leading the way, we forthwith trundled up the companion-ladder and stepped out on deck.

It seemed to have grown blacker and more threatening than ever during the short time that I had been below, although that may have been due to the contrast between the light of the cabin and the darkness on deck; the ruddy tinge on the cloud edges, however, was even more pronounced than before, the colour having slightly changed and grown more like the hue of red-hot copper. Ryan was evidently much astonished—and, I thought, somewhat dismayed—by what he saw.

"By the powers!" he ejaculated, "you did right to call me, Dugdale. If we were in the Indian Ocean, now, I would say that a cyclone was brewing; and, now I come to think of it, there is no Act of Parliament against one brewing here. How is the glass now? has it dropped anything since you last looked at it?"

I went to the skylight and once more peered at the mercury.

"Yes, indeed, sir, it has," answered I, "it has gone down nearly one-tenth!"

"Then, by the piper, we're in for something out of the common, and the sooner we set about preparing for it, the better!" exclaimed Ryan. "Ah! I see you have already furled everything; well, that leaves us so much the less to be still done. Call all hands, however, for we may have it upon us at any moment, by the look of things up there," pointing to the frowning, ruddy sky. "Rig in the jib-boom, and send down all but the lower-yard on deck, and both topmasts as well. Set some of the men to secure the canvas with double gaskets; and close-reef the boom-foresail and set it. Let the carpenter look to the hatches and see that they are securely battened down, and he had better examine the pumps also; our lives may depend upon them before all is over. Where is the boatswain? Oh, is that you, Bartlett? Give an eye to the boats' gripes, will you, and see that they are all right. I have known a boat to be blown clean from the davits before now. Hurrah, men! look alive with those yards, and let us have them down here on deck as quickly as possible."

The schooner was by this time as busy as a beehive in swarming-time, the men working with a will, since they knew, from the sharp, incisive tones in which Ryan issued his orders, as well as by the menacing aspect of the sky, that the occasion was pressing. Fortunately, in so small and lightly-rigged a craft as the Felicidad, the task of preparing her for the forthcoming battle with the elements was not a heavy one, and, being well manned for our size, we were soon ready.

None too soon, however. For hardly had the finishing touches been given to our preparations, and the guns and boats made thoroughly secure, than we were momentarily dazzled and blinded by a terrific flash of blue lightning that seemed to dart from the clouds immediately overhead, and to strike the water close to us, filling the dead and heavy air with a strong odour of brimstone, while simultaneously we were deafened and stunned by a most awful, ear-splitting crack of thunder that made the schooner quiver from stem to stern as though she had been struck by a heavy shot.

Ryan, Pierrepoint, and I were all standing close together near the companion at the moment when the lightning flashed out, illumining the whole scene for an instant with a light as brilliant as that of the noonday sun, and while I was still in process of recovering from the shock produced by the terrifying crash of the thunder, I heard my fellow-mid exclaim to the captain—

"There! did you see that, sir? There is a craft of some sort away out there," pointing in a north-easterly direction. "I saw her as distinctly as possible. She is about six miles away, and is stripped to her close-reefed topsails—"

"Did you see that ship out there on our port-quarter, sir?" hailed one of the men from the forecastle, interrupting Master Freddy in his tale.

"No," answered Ryan sharply. "I wasn't looking that way. What did she look like?"

"She is a square-rigged craft of about three or four hundred tons, under close-reefed topsails, lying end-on to us, sir," answered the man.

"Surely it can't be our old friend the barque that has drifted within view of us again during the darkness?" exclaimed Ryan excitedly. "Keep a good look-out for her, lads, when the next flash comes," he added in an eager tone of voice, that showed conclusively how secondary a matter the impending outburst of the elements had already become to him in view of this new discovery.

No second flash came, however, but instead of it, and almost as the last words left Ryan's lips, the clouds above us burst, and there descended from them the heaviest downpour of rain that I had ever up to that time witnessed. Those who have never beheld a tropical thunder-shower can form no conception of what it is like. Imagine yourself to be standing immediately under a large tank of warm water, and then further imagine that the contents of this tank are suddenly capsized right on top of you; multiply the quantity of falling water a million times, and suppose the descent of the water to be continued for from three to six or seven minutes, and you will then have an imperfect conception of the sort of drenching that we received on the occasion of which I am now speaking. The decks were flooded in an instant, and before I could wriggle into my oil-skins I was soaked to the skin, and the warm water was washing above my ankles with the roll of the schooner. The scuppers were wholly inadequate to the occasion, and we were obliged to open the ports to get rid of the water and prevent it from getting below. The downpour lasted some four minutes or so, ceasing as abruptly and with as little warning as it had commenced; but in that time it had beaten down the swell so effectually that our motion was scarcely more perceptible than it would have been in a well-sheltered roadstead; and the effect of the sudden cessation of the noises that had been so recently sounding in our ears, and of the crash of the downpour, was very weird and curious, the dead silence now being broken only by an occasional faint creak or jar of bulkhead or boom, and the loud gush and gurgle of the water pouring from the scuppers.

The silence was of no long duration, however, for we had scarcely found time to become sensible of it when a faint moaning sound arose in the air, coming from no one knew where; and, presently, with a still louder moan, a sudden, furious, scuffle of wind swept past us, causing our reefed foresail to flap loudly, and was gone. The moanings grew louder and more weird, sounding now on the port-quarter, now on the starboard bow, then broad abeam, and anon high over our mastheads; it was clear that small, partial currents of air were in violent motion all round us, and that the crisis was at hand.

The Pirate Slaver—by Harry Collingwood



CHAPTER EIGHT.

CAUGHT IN A CYCLONE.

The watch below had been dismissed upon the completion of our work of preparation, but not a man had left the deck, their anxiety to see and know the worst of what was to befall having completely overcome their usual propensity to make the utmost of every moment allotted to them for necessary rest, and they were now all huddled and clustered together upon the forecastle, discussing the situation in low, murmured tones, and holding themselves in readiness, like hounds in the leash, to spring into activity at the first word of command.

The moaning and wailing sounds were now floating all round us, and presently, making itself rapidly audible above them, we became conscious of a deep, fierce, bellowing roar that seemed to be approaching us on our starboard beam, the schooner's head being then about north-west.

"Here it comes!" exclaimed Ryan, in a hoarse tone of suppressed excitement. "Get hold of a belaying-pin each, you two, or you will stand a very good chance of being blown overboard. Starboard your helm; hard over with it, my man. Get under the lee of the starboard bulwarks, men. Carpenter, are your axes ready in case we should be obliged to cut anything away?"

"All ready, sir," came the reply, scarcely audible above the roar of the tempest that was now close upon us; and as the man spoke a fierce gust of wind laden with salt mist swooped down upon us and careened the schooner almost to her covering-board as it filled the foresail with a jar and a report like that of a nine-pounder. This blast was only momentary, however, it was upon us and gone again in an instant, but it was quickly succeeded by others; and then, away in the gloom, right abeam of us, appeared a white, spectral glimmer swooping down upon the schooner with the speed of a race-horse, and spreading momentarily wider athwart the blackness as it came. It was a line of white foam churned up on the surface of the sea by the advancing hurricane, and all behind it the ocean was white as milk. The air was now in violent motion all about us, fierce eddies swooping hither and thither, but generally in the same direction as that from which the gale was approaching. Another heavy salt-laden gust struck us, lasting just long enough to give the schooner way and render her obedient to her helm, and then the deep bass roar rose into a deafening, yelling medley of indescribable sounds as the gale struck us, and the poor little schooner bowed beneath the blow until the water poured in over her lee gunwale and I thought that she was going to "turn the turtle" with us. The foresail stood the strain for just an instant, and then it split to ribbons, and was torn from the bolt-ropes as cleanly as though the work had been done with a knife. But the good sail had already done its work before the hurricane proper had struck us, in that it had imparted some life, even though ever so little, to the schooner; she was already paying slowly off when the first stroke of the hurricane beat her down, and she continued to do so until, as she got dead before it, she rose suddenly to an even keel and went scudding away to leeward like a frightened sea-bird. The awful volume of sound given out by the fierce, headlong swoop of the wind as it bore down upon us quite prepared me to see both masts blown clean out of the schooner; but all her gear fortunately happened to be sound and good, and the loss of the foresail was the full extent of the damage sustained by us.