"He"ll find he"s caught a Tartar," said Saltwell; "but he must be blind not to see by the cut of our canvas what we are, even at this distance."
"Perhaps, he trusts to a fleet pair of heels, and we shall have him showing them to us before long," said Linton. "I do not think there is anything yet to prove that he is not the pirate we are looking for.
That fellow Zappa is a bold and crafty scoundrel, as his late visit to Malta and his successful attack on the Austrian brig sufficiently proves. He may have a mind to engage us, perhaps."
"You don"t know the Greeks, if you think so," said Saltwell. "Why, you must have pictured him to yourself like one of the heroes in the romances you are so fond of, who fight alone for love and glory, and whose greatest delight is to lay their ships alongside an enemy of greater force, in order to prove how superior knaves are to honest men.
Depend upon it, Signor Zappa will keep clear of us, if he can."
"Well, but what do you say to his attacking an Austrian man-of-war, and capturing her?" urged Linton. "That looks something like the chivalry of piracy."
"As to that, in the first place, he discovered, by some means or other, that she had specie on board; and she was also of much less force than his vessel. He carries, it is said, sixteen guns, and she had but eight," answered Saltwell. "So he followed her for some time, till he surprised her one dark night, and captured her before her crew had time to go to quarters. It did not say much for Austrian naval discipline, though it was not an enterprise Zappa had any great reason to boast of, either."
"If the account I heard is true, he acted, however, the part of a magnanimous conqueror; for, after he had rifled the brig, and taken everything he wanted out of her, he allowed her and her officers and crew to go free, without murdering a soul of them, which, at all events, speaks in his favour," said Linton.
"Well, if that is his vessel, we shall soon know more about him and her," observed Saltwell. "We are nearing her fast. I shall go aloft, and try if I can make out what her hull is like."
They drew nearer and nearer the stranger, who still continued her course to the northward under the same easy sail.
At last, her hull was visible from the deck.
Mr Saltwell had his gla.s.s fixed on her, as had Captain Fleetwood.
"What do you make her out to be, Mr Saltwell?" said the captain.
"She is polacca rigged, with raking masts, and has a long, low, dark hull," answered the first lieutenant.
"The very description of the _Sea Hawk_," exclaimed Linton. "I hope to goodness it may be her."
"I trust it may," said Captain Fleetwood, drawing in his breath, and compressing his lips, to conceal his agitation.
The excitement on board now increased, as there appeared a greater probability of the stranger proving to be the pirate.
Anxiously beat the heart of Captain Fleetwood. What might be the consequence, supposing the prisoners were on board, and his Ada among them? Would the pirate hold them as hostages? Zappa, he was aware, well knew, from what he had learned at the ball at Malta, how dear Ada Garden was to him, and what, in consequence, might be the pirate"s conduct?
His orders were to burn, sink, or destroy the rover, wherever he should find him; and he resolved to do his duty.
As he walked the deck in silence, he glanced his eye aloft more frequently than usual to see how the sails stood. They were never better set. Every brace and bowline was taut to a nicety. Then he would look over the bulwarks to judge of the rate at which they were slipping through the water, by the appearance of the sparkling bubbles, as they darted off from the side, and circled in eddies under the counter, and many an earnest gaze did he cast at the chase to a.s.sure himself that he was still coming up with her. It is a saying, that when a hare runs, the dogs will follow--it is equally true at sea, even when the order is reversed, if a vessel makes sail in chase, the chase will generally run away. Hitherto the officers of the _Ione_ had found the vessel in sight offering an exception to the rule.
"Let her see our colours, Mr Saltwell. It may induce her to show hers in return."
The British ensign flew out to the breeze at the peak of the _Ione_; but, for some time, no attention was paid to it by the stranger-- perhaps, it might not have been observed--at all events, no answer was made.
"Ah, the rascal is ashamed of his nation, or is puzzled to know what bunting to show us," said the master. "No, by Jove; there flies the new flag of independence, and a pennant to boot. He wishes to make us suppose he is a Greek man-of-war."
"He may try to do so, but he will not deceive us," said Linton.
"There"s a most piratical cut about the fellow, which is enough to condemn him anywhere."
"We shall soon get her within range of our long guns, and we shall then see what she is made of," observed Saltwell, eyeing her. "Shall we get the gun ready, sir?" he asked of Captain Fleetwood.
"You may, Mr Saltwell; but as long as she does not show any intention of avoiding us, on no account fire," was the answer.
"He seems in no hurry to move, at all events," observed the first lieutenant. He had scarcely spoken, however, before the breeze which the _Ione_ had brought up with her reached the stranger, and, as if to make amends for her former inactivity, the heavy folds of the foresail were let fall, the royals were sent aloft, her head fell off from the wind, studdensail after studdensail was set, and away she flew, before the freshening breeze, like a sea-fowl darting from its slumber on the wave, at a rate which those on board the British ship felt it would take their utmost speed to compete with.
"Up with the helm--square away the yards, Mr Saltwell," exclaimed Captain Fleetwood, as soon as he saw what she was about to do.
"Ay, ay, sir. All hands make sail," cried Saltwell.
"All hands make sail," was echoed along the decks.
The men sprang on deck. The order to set the studden-sails was given.
The hands flew aloft, and before the Greek had got all his canvas up, the _Ione_ had every st.i.tch she could carry packed on her. This gave her an advantage, but the stranger was still far beyond the range of her long guns.
A stern chase is so proverbially a long chase, especially when the leading vessel happens to be the fastest, as there soon appeared reason to believe was the case in the present instance, that I will not weary the reader by describing it, but, for the present, will leave His Majesty"s ship _Ione_ running under all sail, in chase of a suspicious craft, towards the island-studded sh.o.r.es of Greece.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
Never did the _Ione_ go along at greater speed under the same canvas than she was doing in chase of the Greek brig; but fast as she went, she gained little, if anything, on the vessel she pursued. No two crafts could have been better matched. The chances were all, therefore, in favour of the escape of the latter. She was four miles ahead, and she kept that distance. She might carry away a mast or spar, and thus the _Ione_ might come up with her; or it might fall calm, and she might be overhauled by the boats, but the pursuer was just as likely to receive some damage, and thus she had most to fear a calm. If she could manage to hold her own till night came on, she would be able to haul her wind on either tack with very little danger of being discovered. The officers walked the deck with impatient steps. It was provoking to have a vessel just ahead of them, and which they all felt almost sure was the one they were in search of, and yet be unable to come up with her.
"If we could but get her within range of our guns, there would be some satisfaction in peppering at her," said Jemmy Duff, who, with several of his messmates had gone on the forecastle to have a better view of the chase. "I"d give a month"s pay to have only one slap at her."
"That"s not any overwhelming sum, Jemmy, though," observed Togle, laughing. "I"d give the whole of my half-pay for a year, and all the fortune you"re ever likely to leave me, to have her within range of our guns for ten minutes."
"Mighty generous you are, indeed," said Jack Raby. "By that way of reckoning, whoever got the half-pay would be sadly out of pocket, as a midshipman"s half-pay is nothing, and find himself; if he accepted the one, he would have to pay for your grub, and whoever gets Jemmy"s fortune won"t have much duty to pay, I"ll bet."
"No; I must consider my rank in the service my fortune, whenever I have to propose to a young lady," answered Duff, putting his hand on his heart, with a sentimental look. "But, I say, can"t we do something to get hold of that fellow ahead of us?"
"Why, I suppose he"ll fetch the land one of these days, and then, if he can"t sail over it, like the Yankee flat-bottomed crafts, which draw so little water that they can go across the country, when the dew is on the gra.s.s in the morning, we shall come up with him," replied Togle, with great gravity.
"I wonder you can joke about it, Togle," said Duff. "For my part, I hate the sort of work, it makes one feel all nohow, and sadly injures the appet.i.te; I could scarcely eat my dinner to-day."
"One wouldn"t have supposed so by the manner you stowed away the grub,"
answered Togle. "For my part, I don"t feel so anxious, because I"ve made up my mind that we shall catch her some time or other. Let"s see, it has just gone seven bells, so we"ve more than three hours of day-light, and much may happen in that time."
The men were, meantime, discussing the subject of the chase in their own fashion; nor did the three warrant officers, Brown, Black, and White, fail to express their opinions on the matter.
"My opinion is," said Mr Brown, "that them Grecian chaps know how to build crafts suited for going along in their own waters, as all must allow is the case in most parts; but just let us catch any one of them-- that fellow ahead, for example--outside the straits, wouldn"t we just come alongside him in a quarter less time."
"As it is, he"ll lead us a pretty chase, I fear," observed Mr Black.
"It will be like one I heard of in the war time, when a Jersey privateer chased a French schooner from off the Start right round the Cape, and never caught her till she ran into the Hoorly."
"Ah! but there was a longer chase than that which I have heard talk of, when the _Mary Dunn_, of Dover, during the Dutch war, followed a Dutchman right round the world, and never caught her at all," said Mr White, who piqued himself on being facetious. "Now, I"m thinking this present affair will be, somehow, like that, unless as how we manage to go faster than we now goes along, which ain"t very likely, or she goes slower, which she don"t seem to have a mind to do."
During the day, Captain Fleetwood scarcely quitted the deck. Up and down he paced, with his gla.s.s under his arm, now and then stopping and taking an anxious look at the chase, again to continue his walk, or else he would stand loaning against the bulwarks for a length of time together, without moving, unconscious of its lapse; his thoughts evidently fixed on the vessel ahead, and penetrating, in fancy, her interior. Indeed, none of the officers remained below longer than was necessary to take their meals, and every gla.s.s was in requisition to watch the chase.
Towards the evening, the wind, although keeping steady in the same quarter, gave indications of falling light, and there seemed every probability of what most on board had prognosticated would not take place--a calm.
"The wind has dropped very much, sir," said Mr Saltwell to the captain.