Ten minutes later the
frame of the ship shook under the discharge of the big Parrot. The shot
went over the chase; but she promptly changed her course to the
southward.
CHAPTER XXIX
THE FIRST PRIZE OF THE ST. REGIS
The shot from the Parrot passed between the funnel and the mainmast of
the chase, as judged by the splash of the ball in the water just beyond
her. It had come near enough to the mark to wake up the captain of the
highflyer. He appeared to believe that the pursuer from the northward
had simply cut him off by approaching on the shorter side of the
triangle, and that all he had to do was to escape to the southward,
evidently satisfied that no steamer in the Federal navy could overhaul
him in a fair and square race.
"Now comes the tug of war," said Mr. Baskirk, when the St. Regis had
been headed for the chase.
"The game will not last all day," added Christy. "If I owned that
highflyer, I should not employ her present captain to sail her for me.
He is overloaded with a blind confidence, and he has made a very bad use
of his opportunities. If I had been in command of that steamer I should
have made her course so as to run away from all three of my pursuers as
soon as I made them out. It is six o'clock now, and I should have got
far enough into the darkness to give them all the slip, and gone into
Wilmington on a new track.
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