"Keep all your men down below the line of the bulwarks, O'Grady. Mr. Woods, you had better get your boat down and row alongside of the ship, and ask the captain to get the slings at work and hoist some of our stores into her; we will do the same on the other side. Tell the captain to lower a couple of his boats; also take twenty soldiers on board with you without their jackets; we will do the same, so that it may be seen that we have a strong party on board getting out the cargo." In a few minutes the orders were carried out, and forty soldiers were at work on the deck of the Sea-horse, slinging up tents from below, and lowering them into the boats alongside. The approach of the frigate was anxiously watched from the decks of the prizes. The upper sails of the _Sea-horse_ had been furled, and the privateers, under the smallest possible canvas, kept abreast of her at a distance of a couple of lengths. The hull of the French frigate was now visible. "She is very fast," the mate said to the major, "and she is safe to catch one of us if the breeze she has got holds." As she came nearer the feeling of anxiety heightened. "They ought to make out our colours now, sir." Almost immediately afterwards the frigate was seen to change her course. Her head was turned more to the east. A suppressed cheer broke from the troops. "It is all right now, sir," the mate said; "she is making for Brest. We have fooled her nicely." The boats passed and repassed between the _Sea-horse_ and the prizes, and the frigate crossed a little more than a mile ahead. "Five-and-twenty guns a-side," the major said. "By Jove! she would have made short work of us." As it was not advisable to make any change in the position until the frigate was far on her way, the boats continued to pass to and fro, carrying back to the _Sea-horse_ the stores that had just been removed, until the Frenchman was five or six miles away. "Don't you think that we might make sail again, Captain?" the major then hailed. "I think that we had better give him another hour, sir. Were she to see us making sail with the prize to the south it would excite suspicion at once, and the captain might take it into his head to come back again to inquire into it." "Half an hour will surely be sufficient," the major said. "She is travelling at eight or nine knots an hour, and she is evidently bound for port. It would be unlikely in the extreme that her commander would beat back ten miles on what, after all, might be a fool's errand." "That is true enough, sir. Then in half an hour we shall be ready to sail again."