The course of the brig was altered to one or two points more Southerly, and ere long the strange sail creeping up inch by inch in-the horizon was distinctly visible from the deck. She was evidently a barque of about five hundred tons burthen, and had the appearance of being an English merchantman. ‘Mr. Herbert,’ said the captain, ‘what do you make out of the sail yonder?’ ‘A British barque, sir,’ ‘No doubt, but do you think her armed?’ ‘She’s lower in the waist than we are, sir, and yet I can’t justly make out the deck, sir,’ was the reply of the second officer. ‘Run up to the fore-top cross trees, sir, and take this glass with you.’ ‘Ay ay, sir,’ said Herbert leaping up the rigging to get a better view of the stranger, who was now nearing them fast. ‘Fore-cross trees there,’ hailed Channing after allowing Herbert time to get a good look at the stranger. ‘Ay, ay, sir.’ ‘Can you make out her armament?’ ‘She’s got five or six caronnades on her deck, sir, but nothing of very heavy calibre that I can make out.’ ‘That will do, sir.’ This was equivalent to saying, ‘you may come down, Mr. Herbert,’ and so Jack came down to the quarter-deck. ‘Mr. Herbert, that is St. George’s flag floating from the main of that barque. Shall we show them the flag of the colonies? What think you--would they stare at it?’ ‘No doubt of that, sir, being’s he’s never been in these latitudes yet, but where can we get one, sir?’ ‘I have looked out for that.’ Thus saying Channing retired to the cabin, but soon returned to the deck with a flag bearing the device of a pine tree. ‘Run that up, and fire a gun, sir.’ ‘Ay, ay, sir,’ and up went the humble flag of the North American colonies. This was scarcely done when the barque sent a shot towards the brig in defiance. The Constance did not have the appearance of an armed vessel when seen from a distance and her ports closed, and indeed she appeared much inferior to her true size by reason of her sitting low in the water and the height of her waist hiding her armament. Even the long tom amidships was so covered over with ropes and other ship gear, that unless a close observer, one would not have discovered it. The captain of the English barque evidently expected to make an easy prey of her, and therefore began to fire, by way of bravado, long before he had got within gun shot with his own light metal. ‘Clear away the long tom,’ said Channing.’ The gear was cast from its fastenings, and the deck about it was cleared of the heaps of rubbish and all obstacles about it. ‘We’ll play him a game of long bowls, Mr. Herbert,’ said the captain of the brig, ‘and this we can do with safety if your surmise with regard to his armament be true.’ ‘I’m the more convinced of it, sir, from the fact of his throwing those small shot at us from the distance he holds,’ said Herbert. ‘Just so, no doubt, step forward there and oversee that gun, don’t throw away a single shot, we shall need them all.’