"This won't do at all, Mr Adair," he said.  "That fellow is going through the water almost as fast as we are, and is holding as good a luff.  At this rate we shall not get to grips with him before dark, which will probably mean losing the big fellow, if not both of them.  I see that the barometer is inclined to rise; we will, therefore, shake the reef out of the topsails, and set the fore and main-topgallant sails.  If it becomes a question of `carrying-on,' I think we ought to have the best of it by a long way."