longitude. For forty-eight hours a fog which now began to rise had covered the ocean. If this mist favored the Dolphin by hiding her course, it also prevented any observations at a distance being made, and, without being aware of it, she might be sailing side by side, so to speak, with the ships she wished most to avoid. Now this is just what had happened, and when the ship was signaled she was only three miles to windward.
When James Playfair had reached the bars, he saw distinctly, through an opening in the mist, a large Federal corvette in full pursuit of the Dolphin.
After having carefully examined her, the captain came down on deck again, and called the first officer.
"Mr. Mathew," said he, "what do you think of this ship?"
"I think, captain, that it is a Feedral cruiser, which suspects our intentions."
"There is no possible doubt of her nationality," said James Playfair. "Look!"
At this moment the starry flag of the United States appeared on the gaff-yards of the corvette, and the latter asserted her colors with a cannon-shot.
"An invitation to show our colors," said Mr. Mathew. "Well, let us show them; there is nothing to be ashamed of."
"What's the good?" replied James Playfair. "Our flag will hardly protect us, and it will not hinder those people from paying us a visit? No; let us go ahead."
"And go quickly," replied Mr. Mathew, "for if my eyes do not deceive me, I have already seen that corvette lying off Liverpool, where she went to watch the ships in building; my name is not Mathew, if that is not The Iroquois on her taffrail."
"And is she fast?"
"One of the fastest vessels of the Federal marine."
"What guns does she carry?"
"Eight."
"Pooh."
"Oh, don't shrug your shoulders, captain," said Mr. Mathew, in a serious tone; "two out of those eight guns are rifled, one is a sixty-pounder on the forecastle, and the other a hundred-pounder on deck."
