But the stranger was now well to windward, and fully four or five miles distant. The Alabama flew through the water with the freshening breeze, flinging the spray over her sharp bows, and stretching to her task as though she herself were conscious of the work before her, and eager in chase. But the strange sail was almost, if not quite, as fast as herself, and her position so far to windward gave her an immense advantage. The day, too, was wearing on, and the sky beginning to cloud over, giving every token of a dark if not a stormy night. If the chase could only hold on her course till dusk she was safe, and already the hopes of another prize were beginning to fade, and the anxious speculators on the forecastle were expecting the order to up helm and relinquish the chase.
On the quarter-deck, too, the idea was gaining ground that the affair was hopeless, and that it was not worth while to keep the ship longer from her course. But the Alabama was not given to letting a chance slip, and before finally abandoning the pursuit it was determined to try the effect of a shot or two upon the nerves of the stranger. A slight cheer, quickly checked by the voice of authority, rose from the eager crowd on the forecastle, as the weather bow gun was cast loose and loaded, and in another minute the bright flash, with its accompanying jet of white smoke, leaped from the cruiser's bow, as the loud report of a 32 pounder rang out the command to heave to.
A moment of breathless suspense, and another cheer rose from the delighted throng of sailors, as the stranger's sails were seen for a moment to shiver in the wind, and the frightened chase luffed to the wind, and then lay motionless with the Stars and Stripes at her mizenpeak. Another sharp hour's beating and the Alabama was alongside, and had taken possession of the United States schooner Crenshaw, from New York to Glasgow, three days out.
And now began another investigation into the character of the cargo, and notes were once more carefully compared, lest any _bonâ fide_ neutral property should become involved in the fate that would otherwise befall the captured enemy. Finally, however, the case was decided against ship and cargo, and both were accordingly committed to the flames, the following entry being made by Captain Semmes of the grounds of his decision:--