Six bells arrived, by which time the commodore was once more in our wake, having tacked again, while we had clawed out about half a mile to windward of the chase, and drawn so close to her that I determined to try the effect of another shot from the long eighteen upon her.  The gun was accordingly reloaded, carefully trained, and the schooner luffed sufficiently to bring the gun to bear clear of our head gear.  At the proper moment the gunner, who was squinting along the sights, gave the order to fire.  The linstock was applied, the gun exploded, shaking the little vessel to her keel, and as the helm was put up to keep her away again, all eyes were strained to note the effect of the shot.  It struck the water fair and true close astern of the chase, but without doing any damage, so far as we could see.  But it was soon apparent that it had fallen too close to her to be pleasant, for the next moment her fore- rigging was alive with men, who swarmed up on to her yards as she put her helm up and kept away upon a south-westerly course, with the wind well over her port quarter.  And that her skipper was a taut hand, who kept his men well up to the mark, was immediately afterwards evidenced by the wonderful man-o'-war-like rapidity with which they rigged out their studding-sail booms, and set a whole cloud of studding-sails on their port side.