Although Ralph strained his eyes in the direction in which the captain had been looking, he could see nothing; but he had no doubt a sail had been seen coming up astern, and that the object of the change of course was to let her pass them without their being seen.  He rather wondered that, instead of running off the wind, the captain had not put her about so as to take her position to windward instead of to leeward of the vessel behind; but he soon arrived at the object of the maneuver.  There were no stars to be seen, and the bank of clouds overhead stretched away to the east, and the horizon there was entirely obscured; but to the west the sky was lighter, and a vessel would be clearly visible to the eye.  The brig, therefore, in the position she had taken up could not be seen, while she herself would obtain a full view of the other as she passed her.

In an hour the other ship came along.  She was a large ship, full rigged, and the French sailors, who had all come on deck, now clustered against the bulwarks and eagerly discussed her.  She was about two miles to windward, and opinions differed as to whether she was a man-of-war or an Indiaman.  Ralph rather wondered that the privateer had not tried to get alongside in the darkness and take the vessel by surprise, but he understood now that there was a strong probability that the Belle Marie might have caught a tartar and have suddenly run herself under the guns of a British frigate.  As soon as the vessel had passed, the braces were manned and the yards swung round, and the brig continued her course.  She was brought up almost to the wind’s-eye and sailed as closely as possible, so that when morning broke she should have recovered the leeway she had made and should be to windward of the vessel she was pursuing, no matter how much astern.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PRIVATEER’S RENDEZVOUS.

When morning broke the vessel that the privateer had been watching in the night was seen to be three miles directly ahead.  She was a large vessel, and for some time opinions differed as to whether she was a frigate or an Indiaman; but when it became quite light a patch or two in the canvas showed that she could not be a man-of-war, and all sail was at once crowded on to the privateer.  The other ship at once shook out more canvas, but half an hour sufficed to show that the privateer was much the faster vessel.  The stranger took in the extra canvas she had set, and continued her course as if altogether regardless of the privateer.

“They have made up their minds to fight,” Jacques said to Ralph.  “Now he finds that he can’t outsail us he has got on to easy working canvas.  She is a big ship, and I expect carries heavier metal than we do.  It may be that she has troops on board.”

The brig kept eating out to windward until she gained a position about a mile upon the starboard quarter of the Indiaman, then the long pivot-gun was leveled and the first shot fired.  The crew had by this time all taken their places by the guns, and Ralph and the other boys brought up powder and shot from the magazine.  It was not without a struggle that Ralph brought himself to do this; but he saw that a refusal would probably cost him his life, and as some one else would bring up the cartridges in his place his refusal would not benefit his countrymen.