Part 22 (1/2)
”He'll find he's caught a Tartar,” said Saltwell; ”but he must be blind not to see by the cut of our canvas e are, even at this distance”
”Perhaps, he trusts to a fleet pair of heels, and we shall have hi,” said Linton ”I do not think there is anything yet to prove that he is not the pirate we are looking for
That fellow Zappa is a bold and crafty scoundrel, as his late visit to Malta and his successful attack on the Austrian brig sufficiently proves He e us, perhaps”
”You don't know the Greeks, if you think so,” said Saltwell ”Why, you must have pictured him to yourself like one of the heroes in the rolory, and whose greatest delight is to lay their shi+ps alongside an enereater force, in order to prove how superior knaves are to honest nor Zappa will keep clear of us, if he can”
”Well, but what do you say to his attacking an Austrian ed Linton ”That looks so like the chivalry of piracy”
”As to that, in the first place, he discovered, by some means or other, that she had specie on board; and she was also of much less force than his vessel He carries, it is said, sixteen guns, and she had but eight,” answered Saltwell ”So he followed her for soht, and captured her before her crew had tio to quarters It did not say h it was not an enterprise Zappa had any great reason to boast of, either”
”If the account I heard is true, he acted, however, the part of a , and taken everything he wanted out of her, he allowed her and her officers and crew to go free, withouta soul of them, which, at all events, speaks in his favour,” said Linton
”Well, if that is his vessel, we shall soon knowher fast I shall go aloft, and try if I can make out what her hull is like”
They drew nearer and nearer the stranger, who still continued her course to the northward under the same easy sail
At last, her hull was visible frolass fixed on her, as had Captain Fleetwood
”What do you make her out to be, Mr Saltwell?” said the captain
”She is polacca rigged, with raking , low, dark hull,” answered the first lieutenant
”The very description of the _Sea Hawk_,” exclaioodness it may be her”
”I trust itin his breath, and coitation
The excitereater probability of the stranger proving to be the pirate
Anxiously beat the heart of Captain Fleetwood Whatthe prisoners were on board, and his Ada aes? Zappa, he are, well knew, from what he had learned at the ball at Malta, how dear Ada Garden was to hiht be the pirate's conduct?
His orders were to burn, sink, or destroy the rover, wherever he should find him; and he resolved to do his duty
As he walked the deck in silence, he glanced his eye aloft more frequently than usual to see how the sails stood They were never better set Every brace and bowline was taut to a nicety Then he would look over the bulwarks to judge of the rate at which they were slipping through the water, by the appearance of the sparkling bubbles, as they darted off from the side, and circled in eddies under the counter, and aze did he cast at the chase to assure hi, that when a hare runs, the dogs will follow--it is equally true at sea, even when the order is reversed, if a vessel enerally run away Hitherto the officers of the _Ione_ had found the vessel in sight offering an exception to the rule
”Let her see our colours, Mr Saltwell It may induce her to show hers in return”
The British ensign flew out to the breeze at the peak of the _Ione_; but, for soer-- perhaps, it ht not have been observed--at all events, no ansas made
”Ah, the rascal is asha to show us,” said theof independence, and a pennant to boot He wishes to make us suppose he is a Greek man-of-war”
”He may try to do so, but he will not deceive us,” said Linton