used no more force than was necessary to preserve discipline
on your ship?"

"May it please the most Honorable Court, Sir," answered the doughty
seaman, "it became imperative to strike the mutinous sailor, Maxwell.
Whenever it becomes necessary for a commanding officer to hit a
seaman, it is also necessary to strike with a weapon. I may say that
the necessity to strike carries with it the necessity to kill, or to
completely disable the mutineer. I had two brace of loaded pistols in
my belt, and could easily have shot him. I struck with a belaying pin
in preference, because I hoped that I might subdue him without killing
him. But the result proved otherwise. I trust that the Honorable Court
and the jury will take due account of the fact that, though amply
provided with pistols throwing ounce balls, necessarily fatal weapons,
I used a belaying pin, which, though dangerous, is not necessarily a
fatal weapon."

The judge smiled and Captain Paul was acquitted.

The famous Lord Nelson once said: "A naval officer, unlike a military
commander, can have no fixed plans. He must always be ready for _the_
chance. It may come to-morrow, or next week, or next year, or never;
but he must be _always ready_!" Nunquam non Paratus. (Never
unprepared.)

Paul Jones kept a copy of this maxim in his head. He was always in
training; always on the _qui vive_; always prepared. And--because he
was always prepared--he accomplished what would seem to be the
impossible.

Shortly placed in command of a sloop-of-war, the _Alfred_ (one of the
four vessels which constituted the American Navy), Lieutenant Jones
assisted in an expedition against Fort Nassau, New Providence Island,
in the Bahamas, which was a complete and absolute failure. On the way
home, and when passing the end of Long Island, his boat was chased by
the twenty-gun sloop-of-war _Glasgow_. The long shot kicked up a lot
of spray around the fleet American vessel, but it was of no use. Jones
got away and sailed into Newport Harbor, Rhode Island, with sails full
of holes and stern-posts peppered with lead. But he was created a
Captain; placed in command of the _Providence_--sloop-of-war, fourteen
guns and one hundred and seven men--and soon harried the seas in
search of fighting and adventure. With him were two faithful negro
boys--Cato and Scipio--who followed him through the many vicissitudes
of the Revolutionary War.

The seas traversed by the _Providence_ were full of English
cru