“Blow winds, and crack your cheeks!” said Ludlow, in an undertone, the excitement of the chase growing with the hopes of success. “I ask but one half-hour, and then shift at your pleasure!” “Blow, good devil, and you shall have the cook!” muttered Trysail, quoting a very different author. “Another glass will bring us within hail.” “The squall is leaving us!” interrupted the captain. “Pack on the ship, again, Mr. Luff, from her trucks to her ridge-ropes!” The whistle of the boatswain was again heard at the hatchways, and the hoarse summons of ‘all hands make sail, ahoy!’ once more called the people to their stations. The sails were set, with a rapidity which nearly equalled the speed with which they had been taken in; and the violence of the breeze was scarcely off the ship, before its complicated volumes of canvas were spread, to catch what remained. On the other hand, the chase, even more hardy than the cruiser, did not wait for the end of the squall; but, profiting by the notice given by the latter, the ‘Skimmer of the Seas’ began to sway his yards aloft, while the sea was still white with foam. “The quick-sighted rogue knows we are done with it,” said Trysail; “and he is getting ready for his own turn. We gain but little of him, notwithstanding our muster of hands.” The fact was too true to be denied, for the brigantine was again under all her canvas, before the ship had sensibly profited by her superior physical force. It was at this moment, when, perhaps, in consequence of the swell on the water, the Coquette might have possessed some small advantage, that the wind suddenly failed. The squall had been its expiring effort; and, within an hour after the two vessels had again made sail, the canvas was flapping against the masts, in a manner to throw back, in eddies, a force as great as that it received. The sea fell fast, and ere the end of the last or forenoon watch, the surface of the ocean was agitated only by those long undulating swells, that seldom leave it entirely without motion. For some little time, there were fickle currents of air playing in various directions about the ship, but always in sufficient force to urge her slowly through the water; and then, when the equilibrium of the element seemed established, there was a total calm. During the half-hour of the baffling winds, the brigantine had been a gainer, though not enough to carry her entirely beyond the reach of the cruiser’s guns. “Haul up the courses!” said Ludlow, when the fast breath of wind had been felt on the ship, and quitting the gun where he had long stood, watching the movements of the chase. “Get the boats into the water, Mr. Luff, and arm their crews.”