The crew at the boatswain’s summons came tumbling up from below. All sail was immediately made, and the Lily’s head directed to the north-west. She was seen, however, and quickly followed by the frigate, the freshening breeze giving an advantage to the larger vessel, which, having the weather-gauge, and sailing remarkably fast rapidly approached.
“We’ve caught a Tartar at last!” exclaimed Tom. “The sooner we go below and put on our best clothes he better; we shall be taken aboard her before the day’s much older.”
“How do you dare to say that!” cried Jack. “Look up there, you see our flag flying aloft, and I for one would sooner have our tight little craft sent to the bottom than be ordered to strike it. Our skipper hasn’t given in yet, and if he falls our first lieutenant will fight the ship as long as he has a plank to stand on.”
Some of the crew, however, appeared to side with Tom, and showed an inclination to desert their guns.
Rayner and Oliver went among them and cheered them up.
“Lads!” cried the commander, who had observed some of them wavering as they gazed with looks of alarm at their powerful enemy, “most of you have sailed in the Lily with me since she was first commissioned. You know that I have never exposed your lives unnecessarily, and that we have always succeeded in whatever we have undertaken. You have gained a name for yourselves and our ship, and I hope you will not sully that name by showing the white feather. Although yonder ship is twice as big as we are, still we must try to beat her off, and it will not be my fault if we don’t.”
The men cheered heartily, and went to their guns. Every preparation for battle being made—to the surprise of her own crew, and much more so to that of the Frenchman—the commandant ordered her to be hove-to.
“Don’t fire a shot until I tell you, lads!” he cried out.
Many looked at the stranger with anxious eyes; the flag of France was flying from her peak. Eighteen guns grinned out from her ports on either side—twice the number of those carried by the Lily, and of a far heavier calibre. As she got within range she opened fire, her shot flying through the Lily’s sails, cutting her rigging and injuring several of her spars, but her guns were so elevated that not a man was hit on deck.
“Steady, lads! We must wait until she gets near enough to make every one of our guns tell!” cried the commander.