Then she fired a gun which had a shot in it, and the shot whistled past us, a little high in the air, but barely missing our sails. Our captain, who had been pacing the deck furiously, gave the order to heave to; he realized that his pursuer would endeavor to sink the Washington unless we complied with her very emphatic request to stop.
The stranger came up and hove to within little more than a hundred yards of us. Then she hailed us, saying,—
"What ship is that?"
Our captain answered that it was the Washington, of and from Boston, and bound to Gibraltar and a market. Haying given this answer he asked,—
"What ship is that?"
To this the stranger made no reply other than to say, "I'll send a boat on board!"
A boat containing an officer and four men came alongside the Washington, and the officer quickly ascended to the deck by means of the rope which had been lowered for him.
"What do you mean by running away from us?" was his first question as his feet touched the deck.
"I ran away because I didn't want to meet you," our captain replied; "that's all there is about it."
"Keep a civil tongue in your cheek," said the British officer, "or you'll be sorry you didn't."