“The curlew is scarcely faster.  Are we not already nigh enough, for men who cruise with commissions no better than our own pleasure?”

The Rover glanced a look of impatient suspicion at the countenance of his companion; but its expression changed to a smile of haughty audacity, as he answered,—­

“Let him equal the eagle in his highest and swiftest flight, he shall find us no laggards on the wing!  Why this reluctance to be within a mile of a vessel of the Crown?”

“Because I know her force, and the hopeless character of a contest with an enemy so superior,” returned Wilder, firmly.  “Captain Heidegger, you cannot fight yon ship with success; and, unless instant use be made of the distance which still exists between us, you cannot escape her.  Indeed, I know not but it is already too late to attempt the latter.”

“Such, sir, is the opinion of one who overrates the powers of his enemy, because use, and much talking, have taught him to reverence it as something more than human.  Mr Wilder, none are so daring or so modest, as those who have long been accustomed to place their dependence on their own exertions.  I have been nigher to a flag even, and yet you see I continue to keep on this mortal coil.”

“Hark!  ’Tis a drum.  The stranger is going to his guns.”

The Rover listened a moment, and was able to catch the well-known beat which calls the people of a vessel of war to quarters.  First casting a glance upward at his sails, and then throwing a general and critical look on all and every thing which came within the influence of his command, he calmly answered,—­

“We will imitate his example, Mr Wilder.  Let the order be given.”

Until now, the crew of the “Dolphin” had either been occupied in such necessary duties as had been assigned them, or were engaged in gazing with curious eyes at the ship which so eagerly sought to draw as near as possible to their own dangerous vessel.  The low but continued hum of voices, sounds such alone as discipline permitted, had afforded the only evidence of the interest they took in the scene; but, the instant the first tap on the drum was heard, each groupe severed, and every man repaired, with bustling activity, to his well-known station.  The stir among the crew was but of a moment’s continuance, and it was succeeded by the breathing stillness which has already been noticed in our pages on a similar occasion.  The officers, however, were seen making hasty, but strict, inquiries into the conditions of their several commands; while the munitions of war, that were quickly drawn from their places of deposit, announced a preparation more serious than ordinary.  The Rover himself had disappeared; but it was not long before he was again seen at his elevated look-out accoutred for the conflict that appeared to approach, employed, as ever, in studying the properties, the force, and the evolutions of his advancing antagonist.  Those