They would not be so far offshore as this, unless they were on the lookout for Indiamen, which of course keep much farther out than ships bound up the Mediterranean; and, having once spotted us, they will follow us like hounds on a deer's trail.

However, I think they are likely to find that they have caught a tartar, when they come up to us.
"Ah! Here is the doctor.
"Well, doctor, what is the report below ?" "Only the usual number of casualties--a sprained wrist, a few contusions, and three or four cases of hysterics." "Is Mother all right, doctor ?" Dick asked.
"As I have heard nothing of her, I have no doubt she is.

I am quite sure that she will not trouble me with hysterics.

Women who have had real trouble to bear, Dick, can be trusted to keep their nerves steady in a gale." "I suppose you call this a gale, doctor ?" "Certainly.

It is a stiff north-easterly gale, and if we were facing it, instead of running before it, you would not want to ask the question.
"That is a suspicious-looking craft, Rawlinson," he broke off, catching sight of the brig, now on their port quarter.
"Yes, she is a privateer I have no doubt, and, unless I am mistaken, she has a consort somewhere out there to starboard.