"I thought so," answered Hanks. "It's the way with most people. Before a blow is struck, they are all peaceable enough; but the moment blood is drawn, they are all as blood-thirsty as a savage." "I hope you don't think me a blood-thirsty savage," said I. "I wouldn't trust you, D'Arcy, my boy," he replied. "When the blood boils, all the ferocity of the heart bubbles up to the top, and we feel more like wild beasts than men." "Are we gaining on the chase, Mr Hanks, think you?" sung out my uncle at this moment. "A little, sir; but the sky has got so much clearer thereaway in the last half-hour, that perhaps she only appears nearer," was the answer; and then Hanks went aft, to walk the quarter-deck with his Commander. There is off Portland Bill a race, or overfall of water, caused by a shallow and rocky bottom, where the sea at times breaks so violently that vessels have been known to be swamped, and to go down amid the turmoil, with scarcely a possibility of any of the hapless crew escaping. During south-westerly gales, and with an ebb tide, the race runs the highest; but sometimes, even in moderate weather, without any apparent cause, there is a strange chopping and leaping of the sea, which makes it dangerous for a small vessel to pass through. The faint outline of the well-known headland was now seen on our larboard bow, and it was pretty evident that the lugger was getting her starboard tacks aboard, to haul off round the outside of the race, if not to stand away towards the French coast. We, accordingly, had to alter our course after her; but I suspected that there was no very great chance of our being able to overtake her. Still we stood on, our main hope being that another cruiser might fall in with her, and turn her again towards us. After the fog had disappeared, the sky overhead became beautifully clear; but, as the day drew on, clouds began to gather, and by the time I went down to dinner they were coming up pretty thick from the south-west and south, rather an unusual circumstance after the sort of morning we had had. While we were discussing our meal, the cutter heeled over, and nearly sent our scanty dinner-service away to leeward. "Hillo, what's the matter now?" I asked. "Matter! why the breeze is freshening, to be sure," said old Growl, our acting master. "Look out for your plates, and when you go on deck it will be time enough to learn all about it."