"Not likely to be. It is taking us along rarely, and it is doing us good in more ways than one. "Look there;" and as they rose on a wave, he pointed across the water, behind Dick. The lad turned, and saw a brig running parallel to their course, half a mile distant. "What of her, sir?" "That is a French privateer, unless I am greatly mistaken." "But she has the British ensign flying, sir." "Ay, but that goes for nothing. She may possibly be a trader, on her way down to the Guinea coast, but by the cut of her sails and the look of her hull, I have no doubt that she is a Frenchman." "We are passing her, sir." "Oh, yes. In a gale and a heavy sea, weight tells, and we shall soon leave her astern; but in fine weather, I expect she could sail round and round us. If the French could fight their ships as well as they can build them, we should not be in it with them." "Why don't we fire at her, Mr. Rawlinson?" The officer laughed. "How are you going to work your guns, with the ship rolling like this? No, lad, we are like two muzzled dogs at present--we can do nothing but watch each other. I am sorry to say that I don't think the fellow is alone. Two or three times I have fancied that I caught a glimpse of a sail on our starboard quarter. I could not swear to it, but I don't think I was mistaken, and I called the captain's attention that way, just before he went down ten minutes ago, and he thought he saw it, too. However, as there was nothing to be done, he went down for a caulk. He had not left the deck since noon, yesterday." "But if she is no bigger than the other, I suppose we shall leave her behind, too, Mr. Rawlinson?" "Ay, lad, we shall leave them both behind presently; but if they are what I think, we are likely to hear more of them, later on. They would not be so far offshore as this, unless they were on the lookout for Indiamen, which of course keep much farther out than ships bound up the Mediterranean; and, having once spotted us, they will follow us like hounds on a deer's trail. However, I think they are likely to find that they have caught a tartar, when they come up to us. "Ah! Here is the doctor. "Well, doctor, what is the report below?" "Only the usual number of casualties--a sprained wrist, a few contusions, and three or four cases of hysterics." "Is Mother all right, doctor?" Dick asked. "As I have heard nothing of her, I have no doubt she is. I am quite sure that she will not trouble me with hysterics. Women who have had real trouble to bear, Dick, can be trusted to keep their nerves steady in a gale." "I suppose you call this a gale, doctor?" "Certainly. It is a stiff north-easterly gale, and if we were facing it, instead of running before it, you would not want to ask the question. "That is a suspicious-looking craft, Rawlinson," he broke off, catching sight of the brig, now on their port quarter.