If he had been on board of the brig he was speaking of at that moment, he might have changed his opinion a little. A revenue protector she was, assuredly, and she was more than a mere cutter. She was well manned, well armed. It looked, indeed, as if what might be her ordinary ship's company had been reënforced, perhaps by a detail from a man-of-war. Her commander was a regular navy lieutenant, and he was a seamanlike old fellow. The four guns each broadside that she carried were the long six-pound chasers that were then going into the new revenue service vessels, and they were good pieces for their caliber. She was a dangerous customer for the kind of antagonist she was expected to meet.
"Mr. Tracy," said a young officer on her quarter-deck to the gray lieutenant, "what do you think of her, sir?"
"My boy," replied his commander, "she's the chap we're here for. She has just the style o' foremast and tops'l that Syme told us of. That's the Yankee. I can't believe, though, that she's all he said she was. The fellow was badly scared, you know."
"We'll knock some splinters out of her, and take her in, then," laughed the young man, jauntily. "You were right, sir, in coming this way. The others missed her."
"We won't do that," said Tracy. "All hands clear away for action! We are going to take that American privateer!"
"Ay, ay, sir!" came cheerily back, and the crew sprang away in genuine British readiness for anything like a brush with an enemy.
An ugly antagonist the Arran was likely to be, and she was sure of good handling. She was speedy, too, and the two vessels were all the while nearing each other. It was to be noted, nevertheless, as Captain Avery had said, that at the same time they were getting away out of reach of the overpowerful ship of the line.
"I'm going to strike first," he remarked, "and I mean to hit hard. Ready, Up-na-tan! Williams, pull down that Norway bunting, and run up the stars and stripes! We'll fight under our own flag to-day. I'll cripple that fellow or take him. If I don't, we're bound for a British prison, instead of Amsterdam."
"That's so, sir," said Groot. "She's a pretty big bird for us, I'm thinking."
"Big or little, we'll fight her! Three cheers for the flag!" sang out the captain.