“Give way, my lads, give way,” cried Hemming; not that his crew required the slightest inducement to pull as hard as they could lay their backs to the oars.
The felucca had got considerably the start, and was going through the water somewhat faster than the man-of-war’s boat; the more also she drew off the land the stronger she got the breeze.
“There’s no use longer attempting concealment,” cried Hemming, “the chances are she has made us out already. Get a blue-light ready, Adair. The frigate will see it by this time, and be on the look out for her. Rogers, see to the gun forward. You may be able to send a shot into the felucca and knock away a spar, perhaps.”
These orders were promptly obeyed. While Jack sprang forward to fire the gun, Adair’s blue-light, blazing up, cast a lurid glare over the figures of the crew as they tugged at their oars, and which also extended far away across the surface of the ocean, while at the same moment the sharp report of the gun broke the hitherto almost perfect silence of the night. Jack could not see whether his shot had taken effect, but he had some hopes that it had. Again, at Hemming’s order, he fired, while, as soon as the first blue-light had gone out, Adair lighted another. Their eyes all the time were ranging the offing to try and discover the whereabouts of the frigate.
“There is her light, sir,” shouted Jack from forward, and when their own blue-light grew dim, hers was seen shining like a star floating on the water in the far distance.
Thus they went on, burning blue-lights, at longer intervals though than at first, and firing shot after shot at the felucca. The slaver bore it at first without attempting to return the compliment; but at length, when Rogers hoped that he had hit her, her captain seemed to lose patience, and she opened fire on the boat in return. The latter, however, especially in the night, offered too small an object to be easily hit. Still one shot came whistling over their heads, and another struck the water close to them, showing them, as Paddy said, that they were comfortably within range.
“I think that I have winged her,” shouted Jack; “if so, even should the breeze increase, and she escape from us, the frigate will get hold of her.”
Thus time sped on, the frigate and her boat showing at intervals their blue-lights, while the slaver, caught between them, continued pretty rapidly firing away at the latter. Still Hemming, at all events, did not feel at all certain that the felucca would be caught. Though the light on her deck could be seen, she was growing more and more indistinct as she increased her distance from them. At last she ceased firing. The breeze too was increasing.
“Do you still see her, Rogers?” asked Hemming.
“No, sir,” answered Jack. “She’s vanished altogether into thin air.”