The Flag of Distress, by Mayne Reid

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Title: The Flag of Distress A Story of the South Sea

Author: Mayne Reid

Release Date: April 25, 2008 [EBook #25164]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLAG OF DISTRESS ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

The Flag of Distress

by Captain Mayne Reid.

CHAPTER ONE.

A CHASE.

In mid-ocean--the Pacific. Two ships within sight of one another, less than a league apart. Both sailing before the wind, running dead down it with full canvas spread--not side by side, but one in the wake of the other.

Is it a chase? To all appearance, yes; a probability strengthened by the relative size and character of the vessels. One is a barque, polacca-masted, her masts raking back with the acute shark's-fin set supposed to be characteristic of piratical craft. The other is a ship, square-rigged and full sized; a row of real, not painted, ports, with a gun grinning out of each, proclaiming her a man-of-war.

She is one--a frigate, as any seaman would say, after giving her a glance. And any landsman might name her nationality. The flag at her peak is one known all over the wo

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