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The sails were shut up like a fan, the helm put a-starboard, and on we flew in the new direction. Two hours later, and "Sail ho!" again cried a dozen voices from different parts of the ship. "Where away?" "Right ahead, sir." The news went round the Juniata like an electric shock, and we were all wound up to a high pitch of excitement, feeling now certain that the chase was the selfsame pirate who had robbed the English brig.
On we went like a bloodhound on the scent all that night, and it was only towards sunrise that we had recovered the ground that we had lost on the evening previous. Then the land was reported on the lee bow, and there the oval Peak of Teneriffe, a hundred miles distant, reared its white-robed summit, glistening in the rays of the rising sun. At ten o'clock we resumed the salutations with the long eighteens; but still the balls fell short of the mark, and they were again discontinued, as by the yawing of the ship in firing we thought we lost a little, and now every inch was important.