Still, day after day passed by and no suspicious sail was met with. At length, one evening, soon after dark, the _Wolf_ was standing in towards the French coast. Having passed the Island of Groix, she continued on until several shots were fired at her from a fort, which, however, did no damage. She put about, and a short time afterwards, the wind being East-North-East, the look-out aloft shouted-- "A sail on the lee bow!" The stranger was now seen to be running west by south. The _Wolf_ immediately made all sail, and as she got nearer, two muskets were fired towards the chase, which appeared to be a large ship, to bring her to. Instead of so doing, however, the Frenchman, for such she undoubtedly was, set all the sail she could carry, endeavouring to escape. This seemed strange, for as far as could be judged, she was a larger ship than the _Wolf_. "Will she get away?" asked Dick, who was standing near Ben Rudall at one of the bow-ports on the maindeck, through which they could dimly see the chase rising like some phantom giant stalking over the deep. "Not if we continue to overhaul her as we are now doing," answered Ben. "Will she fight?" inquired Dick. "Ay, and fight hard, too, just as a rat does when caught in a corner. It's a way those Frenchmen have, though why she runs now is more than I can tell. Maybe some of us will be losing the number of our mess. I should not care if I was among them myself. It's a dog's life I lead on board here; but I am thinking of poor Susan. If I am hit, it will be hard lines with her; she and the young ones will have to bear up for the work'us, for there's no one will care for the smuggler's wife, as they call her." "But I hope you won't be killed, Ben," said Dick; "there's no reason why you should be more than any one else." "Well, well, I'm not afraid," answered Ben; "the enemy's shot are in no ways particular, and I should not be so very sorry if one of them was to take off the head of that Lord Reginald or Toady Voules, as his messmates call him." "I could not bring myself to wish either one of them such a fate as that," observed Dick, who had not altogether forgotten his mother's instructions and Christian principles. "I have no reason to love either the young lord or his toady, and I should not weep my eyes out if they were to be killed--they'd only get their deserts; and for my own part, I would like to see them both knocked over by the same round shot," growled Ben, between his teeth. The frigate was now approaching the chase. The drum beat to quarters, and the crew hurried up from below, most of them stripped to the waist with handkerchiefs round their heads and loins. The glare of the fighting lanterns, hung up on the beams along the deck, cast a glow on their muscular figures, the breaches of the guns and other salient points, while all the rest were cast in the deepest gloom.