He told us with
a grin that our vessel was fast being overhauled, and assured us
that she had certainly made her last privateering voyage under the
English flag. The mate cursed him vigorously, rather from habit
than from ill temper, and the seaman shut us in, leaving us once
more in total darkness.
My fellow prisoners talked among themselves, using language that
made me shudder. I rested my head on my hands, stopping my ears and
giving myself up to a dismal reverie. From this I was suddenly
startled by a dull report overhead, and a slight trembling of the
vessel.
"Ads my life!" cried the mate: "they've caught her."
"Maybe 'tis another vessel," said one of the men.
"Shut your mouth!" was the reply, "and list for an answer."
In a few moments there came a muffled report through the timbers.
"There's to be a fight, sure enough," said the mate, "though what
the captain can be a-thinkin' of beats me altogether."
"I would do the same," I said, "and so would any Englishman worth
his salt."
"Then you'd be as big a fool as he is," was the blunt retort.
It was a tantalizing position to be in. Here we were, boxed up in
the darkness, condemned to listen to a duel of firing at long
range, without any means of knowing what its effects were, hoping
that our countrymen would win, yet aware that if the vessels came
to close quarters a shot might plunge among us and send us all into
eternity. We could tell that the vessel was racing through the
water at a great rate, but, to judge by the reports that reached
our ears, the distance between the combatants was not diminishing.
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