Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/112

 the officers, too, sighed for something speedier underfoot than the little cruiser. Night came down quickly, far too quickly to please those on the pursuer, and the distant shape of the raider faded from vision. That, since she was plainly refusing battle, she would seek to escape under cover of darkness by altering her course was a foregone conclusion, and it is fair to assume that there were many anxious discussions in the ward room that evening.

All night the Gyandotte plunged ahead at nearly twenty-one miles an hour. The noise of the engines and the plunging of the ship made sleep more than difficult for Nelson. Then, too, he was in a condition of excitement and suspense that sent his thoughts racing toward the morrow and kept his brain hard at work. And yet he did sleep, just as, if one was to judge from certain sounds that came from nearby hammocks, did others, and didn't awake until reveille sent him tumbling out to restore his canvas couch to its lashings and make his hasty toilet. He didn't have to ask any questions, for the news was hurrying from man to man that the German was still in sight and that the cruiser had cut down the lead considerably. If the Gyandotte had felt hurt the day before by the aspersions cast on her she must have been almost 90