omething
was wrong, he acted promptly, and caused a blue light to be burned on
his forecastle; this was the agreed signal of danger, and it
immediately awakened the unsuspecting fleet into action. Several of
the ships at different intervals in the long line repeated the signal,
which was finally answered by the frigate, hull down ahead. The
corvette, a half mile away perhaps, responded immediately, and wearing
short round came to on the other tack, and headed for the last of the
line, beating to quarters the while.

A less audacious man might have thought that he had done enough in
cutting out with so little loss so valuable a transport from under the
guns of two ships of war, either of greater force than his own, and
therefore would have taken advantage of the night to effect his own
escape. But this would not have suited the daring nature of Captain
Jones, and he resolved to await the advent of the sloop of war,
trusting that the advantage of a surprise might compensate for the
great difference in the batteries of the two ships. Besides the
natural desire to fight the enemy, there was a method in the apparent
madness. If he could successfully disable the sloop before the arrival
of the frigate, he would ensure the escape of the captured Mellish, for
the sloop would be in no condition to pursue, and the frigate could not
safely leave her convoy. So with rather a mixture of ideas, he trusted
to the God of battles and the justice of his cause, and also to the
darkness and his own mother-wit and great skill in seamanship, to make
his own escape after the battle, resolutely putting out of his head the
fact that the loss of a spar or two would in all probability result in
the capture of his own ship. To sum it all up, Jones was not a man to
decline battle when there was the slightest prospect of success, and
the very audacity of the present situation enchanted him. All the
lanterns of the Ranger were again extinguished, therefore, and the men
sent quietly to their quarters, with the strictest injunctions not to
make a sound or fire a gun until ordered, under pain of death. Every
other preparation had long since been made for action, so the officers
slipped on their boarding caps, loosened their swords in their sheaths,
and looked to the priming of their pistols; then receiving their final
commands, departed quietly to their several stations,--Simpson, now
occupying the position of first lieutenant, vacated by Seymo