"

Captain Hanaford was exceeding anxious to be under way; but he
understood that nothing could be done while the storm raged with such
fury, and we sat in the darkness, discussing what might be done when
the morning came.

It was finally decided that we would take all the risk of going down
stream as soon as the tempest abated, for there were many creeks along
the shore where we might run under cover to avoid the fleet, or, if
the worst came, we could go on shore, abandoning the pungy.

In order that Captain Hanaford might be willing to take the chances of
losing his vessel, I showed him the guarantee we had received from
Commodore Barney, and promised that when we got the money from the
government he should share equally with us.

"I'm ready to do whatsoever is agreed upon without askin' you lads to
pay for my pungy in case I lose her," he said stoutly. "There ain't
any certainty I'd been able to keep her if you hadn't come aboard, for
if the Britishers will burn nigh on to a whole city, they won't stop
at a few oyster-boats, if there's any fun to be had in settin' 'em
afire. I don't jest hanker, though, to fool around with a lot of
frigates, an' that's a fact."

"We won't fool with 'em," Darius said decidedly. "It stands to reason
they must be below Fort Washington, else we'd heard the firin' when
they tried to come past. Now 'twixt here an' there we should find a
creek where a pungy like this could be hidden."

"I know of a place about eight miles from here," the captain said
thoughtfully, and Bill Jepson cried cheerfully:

"Then that settles the whole business. We'll get under way when this
'ere squall is over, and before daylight be where we can keep out of
sight till the fleet comes up. Once they're this side of us we shall
be in clear water."

But Bill was not calculating on the force of the "squall." I have seen
a good many summer storms; but never one to equal that on the night of
August twenty-fifth, in the year of grace 1814.

We could hear now and then ashore, even amid the howling of the wind
and the crashing thunder the rending of wood as houses were unroofed,
and from the terrible uproar which came later we believed the trees
growing near where we lay were being torn up by the roots, as was
really found to be the case when morning dawned.

The pungy rocked to and fro as if in the open bay, straining at her
hawsers until it became necessary to pass extra ones, otherwise she
would have been sw