CHAPTER XVI.
A MARVEL.
Weeks flew by while the Molly was cruising about, waiting and watching for the expected East Indiaman.

The privateer, meanwhile, was not losing time.

Several small merchant vessels came in her way, and submitted without a blow to the argument of her compelling pair of guns.

These vessels were either stripped of their cargo and then burnt, or else sent with a few sailors as their prize crew to some American port.

The capture of the British merchant ships kept the Molly supplied with the necessaries for her continued cruise, and served besides to calm the impatience of the men, who were beginning to complain of their captain's pertinacious clinging to the hope of taking the East Indiaman, which might already be safely harbored in English waters.