CHAPTER VI.
_A dull time--"Sail, oh-h-h!"-- An exciting chase--No prize--A gale--Jack's holiday--A new cruising-ground--Dead calm--An enlightened Frenchman--A near thing--Patience!--The Daniel Trowbridge--A lucky haul--In closer--Double Duns--The prize schooner's revenge--Good news from home--An apology--In hopes of a fight--Disappointment--The West India station--Another blank--Martinique_.
Another dull time now set in.

On the 28th September the prize crew were recalled from the Joseph Park, which, after doing duty for some hours longer as a look-out ship, was finally at nightfall, set on fire, and burned to the water's edge.

And now day after day passed by, unrelieved save by the little common incidents of a peaceful voyage.
One day it would be a flying-fish that had leaped on board, and paid the penalty of its indiscretion by doing duty next morning on the captain's breakfast-table; another day a small sword-fish performed a similar exploit; while on a third a heavy rain provided the great unwashed of the forecastle with the unaccustomed luxury of copious ablutions in fresh water.

But not a sail was to be seen.

Once only a simultaneous cry from half-a-dozen sailors of "Light on the starboard bow!" produced a temporary excitement, and caused the engineers to "fire up" at their utmost speed.