"I shall not run from him, my lord. I have eight bulldogs here that can growl and bite as well as e'er a mastiff in his majesty's service: and from the size of his sticks, and his light rig, he carries not so many. But, more or less, he lies to windward of us, and so has the advantage; and, if he can outsail us with a flowing sheet, will, if such be his pleasure, be down upon us ere the middle watch is called. Besides, there is a cap full of wind gathering in that quarter, which will help him along if his humour takes him this way."
"Is there a probability that we shall be pursued, Kenard?" asked the nobleman, with seriousness, glancing anxiously towards Grace, who was watching, with a childish pleasure, the black waves as they leaped up to the stern, broke in glaring white heads, and fell in crystal showers back into the sea again.
"There is, my lord," was the quiet answer.
"It is my desire, then, that you use your best efforts to escape."
"My lord!" exclaimed the hardy seaman, in a tone of disappointment, yet emphasizing the words as if he had not heard aright.
"Exert all your skill and seamanship to avoid a meeting with this bucanier, if such he be," repeated the earl, who perfectly comprehended him. "Those who are unfitted to encounter danger should not be thoughtlessly exposed to it," he added, looking towards his niece. "There is one here, whom you see, that cannot profit by your success, yet will suffer everything by your defeat. Were I alone, my brave captain, I would give you the weight of my blade in this matter. As it is, we must fly."
"We will but let him come within reach of my barkers, my lord, and wake him up with a couple of broadsides, and be off again before he knows what has hurt him."
"I must be obeyed, Kenard," said the earl, decidedly, turning away and joining his niece.
"That Dick Kenard should ever run away from a bucanier," said the seaman, grumblingly, to himself, as he took up his trumpet to give orders, "and without showing him his teeth, is a disgrace both to himself and his majesty's navy. Bluff King Billy himself, were he on board, would be the first to stand by me for a hard brush. This comes of leaving my snug little clipper, the Roebuck, and taking command of this gingerbread yacht, fit only for boarding-school girls to sail about in on a park-lake. Howel," he said, to his lieutenant, in no very good-humoured tones, "have all sail made on this penny whistle; stretch out every rag she's got; make every thread tell. Set stun'sails both sides alow and aloft. See to it!"