If I had been in command of that steamer I should have made her course so as to run away from all three of my pursuers as soon as I made them out.

It is six o'clock now, and I should have got far enough into the darkness to give them all the slip, and gone into Wilmington on a new track." "Her captain appears to trust entirely to his heels, and to look with contempt upon anything like manoeuvring," replied the first lieutenant.
"But we must finish him up before the darkness enables him to give us the slip.

I have no doubt we could knock her all to pieces with the midship gun in the next fifteen minutes; but if she can make eighteen knots an hour, which we seem to be all agreed that she can do, she will not be a useless addition to the United States Navy, and it would be a pity to smash her up, for she is a good-looking craft.

We are gaining two knots an hour on her, and Mr.Vapoor is keeping things warm in the engine and fire rooms." "That is taking an economical view of the subject," added Mr.Baskirk, laughing at the commander's utilitarian views.
"If we continue to fire into her, we must swing to every shot we send, and that would take so much from our speed," argued Christy.

"We are as sure of her as though we already had her in our clutches.