"Oh, please!"
"My daughter—"
"Oh, father, let me stay just a little longer—there is no danger yet. Take Chloe down, if you will, Mr. Desborough, and have a place ready for me. I 'll go down when the battle begins—indeed I will, father!" she continued entreatingly.
"Well," said the colonel, uncertainly, "let her stay a little longer, my lord."
"Very well, sir," replied Desborough, bowing and turning forward.
"Here, you Jack, take this girl below and stow her away in the cable tiers by the main hatch," he said, pointing to Chloe, who was led unresistingly away, her teeth chattering with undefined but none the less overwhelming terror. The colonel stepped forward beside Captain Vincent, and Desborough descended to the main-deck to superintend the fighting of the batteries, while Katharine, grateful for the respite, and determined not to go below at all, stepped aft in the shelter of the rail, her heart already beating madly, as the two ships approached each other in silence.
CHAPTER XXXV
Bentley Says Good-by
The men on the Randolph were in excellent spirits, and as they drew nearer and nearer became more and more anxious for the fray.
"She's a big one, ain't she?" said one young seaman, glancing over a gun through a port-hole forward; "but we ain't afraid of her, mates. We 'll just dance up and slap her in the face with this, and then turn around and slap her with t' other side," laying his hand at the time on one of the long eighteens which constituted the main battery of the frigate.