"To windward."
The news was signaled to the Essex, and it was soon known that a British war ship was bearing down on the Essex.
Commander Porter carried his acting still further.
Instead of the crowd of agile sailors that spring into the rigging of a man-of-war at the order to make sail, only a mere handful were ordered by the captain to set with the greatest awkwardness all the sail the Essex could carry.
Then two long heavy cables were quietly lowered over the stern, and dragging through the water, retarded the ship's progress.
The Britisher thought he had fallen in with a heavy merchantman which was making frantic efforts to escape.
When the man-of-war was near enough to perceive the signals, the Essex warned the Lively Bee to fly before the wind out of the way of the enemy.
Vernon entered into the spirit of the thing, and instead of escaping, caused the schooner to drag along as though heavily freighted.
On the deck of the Essex the few sailors seemed excited and flurried, and the Britisher did not know that every action was assumed.
Had the commander of the English ship been gifted with second sight he would have seen behind those closed ports a roomy gun deck glistening with that whiteness seen only on the decks of a well-ordered war ship.