"I say, Chester, if it's not troubling you too much, will you hand me up
my glass, please? It is in the beckets, just inside the door of my
berth. Here's a strange sail to leeward, and I want to take a squint at
her."
I found the telescope, and carried it on deck myself. Master Harold
slung it over his shoulder, and in another minute was perched on the
long tapering yard of the lateen mainsail.
"What do _you_ make her out to be?" I hailed him, after he had given
her a careful overhauling for some three or four minutes.
"A frigate, without doubt," he replied, his glass still levelled at her.
"I can see her mizzen-royal-mast, with the yard across. Her sails are
not large enough for a line-of-battle ship. Ha! she has hove in stays.
Round she comes, smartly too. Why, she is setting her royals! Surely
she can't be coming after us?"
"As like as not," returned I. "If we can see her, she can see us; and
as a craft of our rig is a rather unusual sight just about here, it is
not improbable that her skipper may wish to learn a little more about
us. What is she--English or French, think you?"
"I believe she is French," was the reply. "I had a good look at her
canvas as she hove about, and it appeared to me to be decidedly
Frenchified in shape."
We were already hugging the wind as closely as was possible, and had
every possible inch of canvas spread; so we could do nothing but stand
on as we were going, and await the course of events.
Her sails rose rapidly above the horizon for the first hour or so, but
after that, as we brought her more _on_ our quarter, they began to sink
again. When about abeam of us, the stranger hoisted the tricolour at
her gaff-end, fired a gun, and showed a signal from her main-royal mast-
head, of which we could make nothing. We, however, hoisted the French
flag also, and left them to make the best they could of it. After the
first signal had been flying some time, it was hauled down, and another
substituted, but with no better luck than before, and it was soon hauled
down.
"She is after us, for a guinea," said I.
"Ay, ay, nae doot o' that," quoth the old quarter-master; "but she'll no
catch us the gait she's ganging the noo. This is oor ain weather, and I
wad like brawly to see the _freegate_ that can beat us wi' nae mair wind
than this. Yon Frenchman wad gie a hantle o' siller to see the breeze
freshen, but it'll no do that yet awhile."
The frigate stood on until she was well upon our weather quarter, by
which time the heads of her topgallantsails were just visible from the
deck, when, to remove any doubt that might have remained as to her
intentions, she once more hove in stays and stood after us.
I went below and looked anxiously at the barometer; it was perfectly
steady. I then returned to the deck and keenly scrutinised the sky; it
was covered with patches of thin fleecy cloud which allowed the sun to
show through, with broad patches of clear blue sky between; and the
breeze was just fresh enough to curl the tops of the wavelets over in
tiny flecks of foam, and to heel the "Vigilant" until our lee covering-
board was just awash, with the clear, sparkling water occasionally
welling up through the lee scuppers. It was, indeed, as old Sandy had
remarked, the weather in which the little "Vigilant" stepped out to the
greatest advantage, and I had very little fear of any square-rigged
vessel being able to overhaul us so long as matters remained _in statu
quo_. I knew that we were sailing a good couple of points nearer the
wind than was the Frenchman astern, and I believed we were going through
the water nearly if not quite as fast as he was. By two bells in the
afternoon watch the craft had dropped to leeward until she was a couple
of points on our lee quarter, but she had certainly risen us a little,
for by standing on the weather-rail I could see the heads of her
topsails.
Matters remained in pretty much the same state for the rest of the day,
excepting that our pursuer gradually tagged away farther and farther to
leeward, until he was broad upon our lee quarter. Toward sun-down,
however, the breeze began to freshen, and our pertinacious companion
soon showed us how great an advantage this was to him, by the way in
which he drew up on our lee beam.
When I went below to tea, I found that the barometer had fallen a
little, and by the time that I had finished the meal and regained the
deck, we were jerking through a short, choppy head-sea, with our lee
bulwarks half-buried in the foam which hissed past our sides, the fore-
deck drenched with the continuous heavy shower of spray which flew in
over our weather bow, and our long yards swaying and bending as though
each had been a fishing-rod with a lively salmon at the end of the line.
I began to feel rather anxious, for the sea which the freshening breeze
had knocked up was very detrimental to _our_ speed, while upon the
frigate, owing to her vastly superior power, it had little or no effect.
Night at length fell. There was no moon, and the stars were partially
obscured by the patches of cloud which covered the sky. I began to hope
we were going to have a dark night, under cover of which we might give
our pursuer the slip. As the darkness closed down upon us, and just
before she vanished in the gloom, I took her bearings with the greatest
accuracy. She had by this time crept up to within a couple of points
abaft our lee beam, and from our deck the upper halves of her topsails
were visible. I allowed half an hour to elapse, and then tried to find
her with my night-glass. To my great disappointment, I did so without
much difficulty; and, what was worse, she was fast drawing up abreast of
us.
It was by this time as dark as it was likely to be, so I resolved to
heave about at once, in hope that we might execute the manoeuvre
undetected, and so give the Frenchman the slip. We accordingly tacked;
and as soon as we were fairly round, and the sheets, etcetera, coiled
down, I had another look for her. Presently the small dark patch swam
into view, as I carefully swept the horizon at the point where I knew
her to be, and, to my disappointment, it showed much shorter than
before. She also had tacked.
"Umph!" I muttered, "their night-glasses are as good as my own,
apparently."
I began to see a French prison looming in the distance; for, from the
rapidity with which she had tacked, and the manner in which,
notwithstanding our superior weatherliness, she was overhauling us, I
knew that our pursuer must be an exceedingly smart ship, and her skipper
was acting like a man who had all his wits about him.
All our lights were of course most carefully masked--a tarpaulin being
thrown over the cabin skylight, and a seaman's jacket over the binnacle,
the helmsman steering by a star.
We stood on thus for about a couple of hours after tacking, and I was
seriously debating in my mind the possibility of giving the Frenchman
the slip by lowering away all our canvas and then running to leeward
under bare poles, my eyes resting abstractedly upon a brilliant planet
broad upon our weather bow, which was just on the point of dipping below
the horizon, when suddenly the said planet vanished. I took no notice
of this until it as suddenly reappeared in the space of a few seconds.
"Another sail, by all that's complicating!" I ejaculated.
"Another sail! Where away, sir?" exclaimed Hardy, who was standing
between me and the helmsman.
"Just to the southward of that bright planet on the horizon, broad on
our larboard bow," said I, as I levelled my glass. "Ah! there she is.
Another frigate, by the look of her--hull up, too."
"Phew!" whistled Hardy; "that's rather awk'ard; she may pick us out any
minute. But perhaps she's English, sir. You don't often see two French
ships so close together as this here. Can you see her pretty plain,
sir?"
"Not very," I replied. "But I fancy there's an English look about her."
"Let _me_ take a squint at her, sir."
I handed him over the glass, and he took a good long look at her.
Suddenly he handed the glass back to me.
"She's English, sir! I'll take my oath of it!" he exclaimed. "She's
the `Amethyst,' that's what she is. I knows her by the way her fore-
topmast and topgallant-mast is looking over her bows. There ain't
another ship afloat as has got such a kink in her foremast as the
`Amethyst,' and that's her, sir, as sure as I'm Tom Hardy."
"Are you _quite_ certain?" I inquired. "Do not speak rashly because
the consequences may prove serious to us. If you are _positive_ about
the matter, I will signal him and turn the tables upon our friend
astern."
"Let me take another look, sir."