Meanwhile, the English boat had drawn nearer. The second mate at once shouted down the tube, 'Get up more steam, the Englishman will be alongside in no time.' And with a sinister smile he added, 'If you fellows can't make more steam, say the word. The fuse is ready. But in that case please label your bones.' The noise of shovels, the banging of furnace-doors, and a loud cheer were the answer that came up from the engine-room. The chief-engineer came puffing up the ladder and shouted to me, 'Captain, if we go on like this the boilers will burst. The steam is long past the red mark.' 'I thought it was long ago. But it's no good worrying about that, my dear fellow. We must break through at all costs. As it is, we have still got a chance; but if this fellow astern of us succeeds in catching us we can make our wills.' He shook his head seriously. Then he plunged down again into his own domain below, and encouraged his men to work as if the devil were at our heels. By now the wireless boat had come up with the _Shatter_, which was still making leisurely for Tralee. To our joy we noticed the other vessel carefully manoeuvring in order to come alongside the _Shatter_. This gave us a good start, and we could see several people jump from the wireless boat, which was letting off a white cloud of hissing steam, on board the _Shatter_. What happened then was not hard to guess. But the captain of the _Shatter_ will certainly not reveal it as long as he lives. Unfortunately, we were unable to watch the proceedings from close range. After an interval of about five minutes the _Shatter_ went about and then both boats took up the chase. But our pursuers had lost so much time in laying their ship alongside the _Shatter_ that they had little chance of overtaking us, for our brave little _Aud_ was now, according to the patent log, doing more than thirteen knots. The coastline now bent round towards SW., and as we were still keeping the same distance from it, we were soon out of sight of the battery. Keeping the same speed, we ran for another hour and a half, and noted with joy that our pursuers were visibly dropping behind. The English also soon saw the impossibility of overtaking us, for they suddenly turned off to port and steamed slowly towards the coast, where they soon disappeared in one of the many bays. It was getting on for half-past three, so we must already have put some miles behind us. When the engine-room staff heard that our pursuers had given up the chase they greeted the news with three rousing cheers. We all gave a sigh of relief, especially the chief-engineer, who lost no time now in letting the steam down below the red danger mark on the pressure gauge.