Luckily, the chase had not taken us much off our course, as the consumption of coal during a run of this sort, with boilers all but bursting from high pressure of steam, was a most serious consideration--there being no coal in the Confederate ports, where wood was only used, which would not suit our furnaces. We were now evidently in very dangerous waters, steamers being reported from our mast-head every hour, and we had to keep moving about in all directions to avoid them; sometimes stopping to let one pass ahead of us, at another time turning completely round, and running back on our course. Luckily, we were never seen or chased. Night came on, and I had hoped that we should have made rapid progress till daybreak unmolested. All was quiet until about one o'clock in the morning, when suddenly, to our dismay, we found a steamer close alongside of us. How she had got there without our knowledge is a mystery to me even now. However, there she was, and we had hardly seen her before a stentorian voice howled out, 'Heave-to in that steamer, or I'll sink you.' It seemed as if all was over, but I determined to try a ruse before giving the little craft up. So I answered, 'Ay, ay, sir, we are stopped.' The cruiser was about eighty yards from us. We heard orders given to man and arm the quarter-boats, we saw the boats lowered into the water, we saw them coming, we heard the crews laughing and cheering at the prospect of their prize. The bowmen had just touched the sides of our vessel with their boat-hooks when I whispered down the tube into the engine-room, 'Full speed ahead!' and away we shot into the darkness. I don't know what happened; whether the captain of the man-of-war thought that his boats had taken possession, and thus did not try to stop us, or whether he stopped to pick up his boats in the rather nasty sea that was running, some one who reads this may know. All I can say is, that not a shot was fired, and that in less than a minute the pitch darkness hid the cruiser from our view. This was a great piece of luck. All the next day we passed in dodging about, avoiding the cruisers as best we could, but always approaching our post.