“Halloo!” cried Marble, who had levelled his glass towards the frigates.—­“There’s the deuce to pay down there, Miles—­one boat pulling this-a-way, for life or death, and another a’ter it.  The shot was intended for the leading boat, and not for us.”

This brought my glass down, too.  Sure enough, there was a small boat pulling straight for us, and of course directly to windward of the frigate; the men in it exerting every nerve.  There were seven seamen in this boat; six at the oars, and one steering.  The truth flashed on me in a moment.  These were some of our own people, headed by the second-mate, who had availed themselves of the circumstance of one of the Speedy’s boats being in the water, without a crew, to run away with it in the confusion of the moment.  The Black Prince had taken possession of the prize, as we had previously noted, and that with a single boat, and the cutter in pursuit appeared to me to be coming from the Frenchman.  I immediately acquainted Marble with my views of the matter, and he seized on the idea eagerly, as one probable and natural.

“Them’s our fellows, Miles!” he exclaimed; “we must fill, and meet ’em half-way!”

It was certainly in our power to lessen the distance the fugitives had to run, by standing down to meet the leading boat.  This could not be done, however, without going within reach of the English guns; the late experiment showing unanswerably, that we lay just without the drop of their shot, as it was.  I never saw men in a greater excitement, than that which now came over us all in the Dawn.  Fill we did immediately; that, at least, could do no harm, whereas it might do much good.  I never supposed for a moment the English were sending boats after us, since, with the wind that was blowing, it would have been easy for the Dawn to leave them miles behind her, in the first hour.  Each instant rendered my first conjecture the most likely to be true.  There could be no mistaking the exertions of the crews of the two boats; the pursuers seemingly doing their best, as well as the pursued.  The frigate could no longer fire, however, the boats being already in a line, and there being equal danger to both from her shot.

The reader will understand that large ships seldom engage, when the ocean will permit it, without dropping one or more of their boats into the water; and that warm actions at sea rarely occur, without most of the boats being, more or less, injured.  It often happens that a frigate can muster only one or two boats that will swim, after a combat; and frequently only the one she had taken the precaution to lower into the water, previously to engaging.  It was owing to some such circumstance that only one boat followed the fugitives in the present instance.  The race must necessarily be short; and it would have been useless to send a second boat in pursuit, could one be found, after the first two or three all-important minutes were lost.