“Yes; when Columbia isn’t there to interfere with her,” retorted Max, a little mischievously.
“I’m thinking ’twill be a sorry day for Columbia when she attempts that,” sneered Albert.
“It hasn’t always been in the past,” remarked Max quietly.
“When wasn’t it?” asked Albert.
“When John Paul Jones in the Bon Homme Richard fought Capt. Pearson in the Serapis, for instance.”
“Well, yes; but that was a very close fight. Beside, you had six vessels and we only two.”
“Two of ours were pilot boats and kept out of the fight altogether,” said Max.
“So did the Vengeance; though she had been ordered to render the larger vessels any assistance in her power; she didn’t even try to overhaul the band of flying merchantmen.
“Then the Alliance, commanded by that bad-tempered Frenchman Landais, who was so envious of Jones, went into the battle only at the last moment, and instead of helping her allies, fired her broadsides into the Richard. The fight was between the Richard, with forty guns, and the Serapis with forty-four; the Pallas, twenty-two guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, with twenty-two. So there was no advantage on our side. If Landais had been in command of the Richard he wouldn’t have tried to fight the Serapis at all.”
“Why do you think that?”