The fog that prevailed
inshore was favorable to blockade-runners; and if there was a vessel of
this character in Cape Fear River, the early morning had been such as to
tempt her to try to make her way through the blockaders to sea.
"She is not one of the ordinary steamers that run in and out of the
river," said Mr. Baskirk, while he and the commander were still watching
the progress of the chase, and Paul Vapoor was warming up the engine as
he had done before.
"She is larger than the St. Regis, but hardly equal in size to the
Bellevite," added Christy. "She cannot draw more than twelve or fourteen
feet of water, or she could not have come out through those shallow
channels at the mouth of Cape Fear River. She seems to have the speed
to run away from her pursuers; but probably not one of them can make
fifteen knots an hour."
The three pursuers of the blockade-runner had changed their course when
the chase did so; but it was already evident that they had no chance to
overhaul her. They were still three miles astern of her, while the St.
Regis, at sunset, was not more than three. Not a shot had been fired by
any one of the steamers, and it would have been a waste of ammunition to
do so.
"We are gaining on her," said Christy, half an hour later. "That steamer
is making sixteen knots at least."
"If she has found out that we can outsail her, very likely she will
count upon the darkness to enable her to give us the slip," suggested
Mr.
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