Then looking all about so as to assure himself that he was not overheard, Richard Dale told Ethan Carlyle his story. He told how the Lexington on that September day, when short of powder and ball, encountered the British cutter Alert. A desperate cannonading of two hours’ duration ensued; then the Lexington, running out of ball, clapped on sail and stood away. But the Alert was the swifter craft and overhauled her, renewing the engagement. The Lexington’s crew broke up all the iron on board and rammed it into her guns, but when this was exhausted she was forced to strike her colors.
The officers and crew were landed at Plymouth and confined in Mill prison, where they suffered greatly.
“The men were actually starved,” said Richard Dale, his eyes shining with anger. “You will better understand their dreadful condition when I tell you that one day they caught a stray dog and killed and cooked it for food. But Captain Johnson and some of the officers dug a hole beneath the wall of the prison, and one night about a dozen of us escaped. We held together for a week or more, wandering by night about the countryside; then we separated and I made my way to London with one companion. We had taken a ship for France when a press-gang boarded her and we were seized, recognized and sent back to Mill prison in chains. I have been there ever since,” said the young man in conclusion. “My first breath of freedom in a year was taken when I stepped through the door of the prison yesterday morning and saw you standing across the way.”
“I don’t exactly understand,” said Ethan bewilderedly. “No one attempted to stop you.”
“Of course not,” answered Dale with a smile. “A kind hearted person of rank who pitied me provided me with this uniform; and I passed, unsuspected, through the keepers to freedom.”
“Who was the person?” asked Ethan. But Richard Dale smiled and shook his head. He lived a long life and died at the head of the American navy, but he ever refused to tell who had assisted him that day to escape from the Mill prison at Plymouth.
“When I saw you standing across the way,” said Dale, “your intent expression unnerved me for a moment. I thought you had penetrated my disguise. But when I heard your voice I fancied that you might be an American.”
“And that is why you warned me to go to London,” said Ethan.
“Yes. But when I saw you at the inn last night I began to suspect you again. I fancied you were following me on the road to-day, and changed my route and came this way.”
“And I,” laughed Ethan, “thought the same of you, and left the highroad for the same reason.”