That there was something wrong in the appearance of the stranger was evident from the bustle and excitement which had suddenly sprung up among officers and crew, not one of whom spoke anything but Spanish.
All sail had been crowded on that the ship could possibly carry; but heavily loaded and at best a poor sailer, the new-comer continued to overhaul them at a startling rate.
Coming alongside of Jack finally, the captain said:
“We are lost, señor! I ought to lose my head for undertaking such a mad project.”
“It may not be as bad as you seem to think, señor capitan,” replied Jack, hoping to encourage the commander.
But all that he could say was in vain.
The Chilian warship, as the stranger really was, continued to keep up its firing, though the Peruvian vessel had not fired a gun.
Jack anxiously watched the approach of their pursuer, feeling that his fortune, if not his life, was at stake.
It is possible if the Peruvian had laid to and allowed the other to come up without the show of running away, that it might have been permitted to continue its course unmolested. And again it may not have been so.
At any rate the Peruvian captain held to his flight as his only hope of salvation, until at last a shot, better directed than the random firing so long kept up, struck the doomed merchantman fairly amidship.