"What do you mean?" asked Tempest, his eyes filled with wonder.
"Do you think the Lively Bee could remain idle while you were enjoying yourselves? No, sir. We started off on a coasting cruise, hoping to find some West Indiaman bound to or from San Salvador."
"And you did?"
"It was not much, nothing worth talking about. It happened on the twenty-eighth that we sighted a nice, trim little schooner laden with sugar.
"We naturally ordered it to 'lay to,' but the saucy Britisher treated us contemptuously and hoisted her sails to outsail us. The Lively Bee can fly with the wind, and so the saucy Gamecock did not gain very much.
"Scarron asked permission to fire our long gun, and, of course, I granted it. He did not appear to take proper aim; but he had charge of the gun, not I. To my astonishment the shot went tearing across the deck of the Gamecock, splintering her mainmast and killing the first officer.
"Its name would lead you to expect a great fight, but at the very first shot down came the flag, and the Gamecock became ours.
"It was but a small prize, but one quickly sold, for the very day I reached land I sold vessel and cargo for thirty-eight thousand."
"Do you call that a small matter?"
"Of course, the Lively Bee likes to run into the hundreds of thousands. But come, let us dine, and then the story of the Constitution."