THE CHASE. 113

gaining on us, she apparently having more wind
than we had.

I, as I had previously done, kept as much as I
could out of their way, and tried to prevent any
gleam of satisfaction appearing in my counten-
ance.

The man-of-war was a corvette—evidently a
powerful and very fast craft, against which the
slaver would not have had the shadow of a chance,
had even her crew possessed the courage to fight,
which I felt very sure, in spite of their bravado,
they would not.

The corvette had been bringing the breeze up
with her, and now the schooner felt it herself, and
began to move more rapidly through the water.
She, too, was a fast vessel, and her crew might
justly have entertained hopes of escaping. I little
thought of the cruel device they were contemplat-
ing to aid them in so doing.

At length the man-of-war had got almost near
enough to reach the slaver with her bow-chasers.
She tried the range of one of them, but the shot
fell short. On this the captain turned, with a
savage determination in his eye, and spoke to one

of the officers. Directly afterwards I saw him
8