"The Tripolitan schooner _Hawk_, from Tripoli. What ship is yours?"
We could not catch the first part of the reply, but we did hear the last words: "Haul down your flag and heave to!"
Uruj went down to tell Murad. We continued on our course.
"Heave to or we'll sink you," cried the challenger.
MacWilliams spoke to Uruj. "Do as you think best," said Uruj. "Fire the bow guns," MacWilliams commanded Watson.
Our grapeshot whistled through the rigging of the frigate. We saw her foresail fall.
Jets of flame issued from her ports and a broadside swept our decks. Our sails were undamaged, but several shots tore through our hull, injuring several of the sailors and soldiers with flying splinters, though none was seriously hurt.
Before the next cannonade came, we had widened the distance between the _Hawk_ and her pursuer. The winds, as MacWilliams had predicted, had grown lighter, and the _Hawk_, a splendid sailer in light winds, showed her heels handily to the enemy. Their shots struck us with less force, and soon we saw the shots from their long gun falling short of us.
We had escaped from capture by a ship that evidently belonged to a country that was hostile to the Tripolitans. If she had seized us the renegades would have been treated in the same way that the Moslems would be used, and therefore MacWilliams took this desperate chance. As for me, I did not know whether to be glad or sorry, for if I had lived through the battle, I could doubtless have proved that I had been held in slavery. Yet the incident must have confirmed the Turks in their opinion of MacWilliams' loyalty.
On another day we sighted a vessel that appeared to be _The Morning Star_, but when she was nearly under our guns, and when Mustapha and I were about to surrender hope of saving our riches, a freak of wind bore her away from us, and we never saw her again.
Meanwhile, the scheme of rebellion and seizure was making steady progress. The plan of mutiny as it had formed itself in MacWilliams's mind was to provide ropes and irons near the hatchways, gratings and cabins so that they could be closed from the outside at a moment's notice. When this had been arranged, the next step was to dupe the Moslems so that the most of them would be below deck when the signal for attack was given. MacWilliams went about the work cautiously. To have one traitor among us, he well knew, would cost every Christian his life. Mustapha, being an Arab, hated the Moors, and entered the plot eagerly.