"Captain Havens, jest let me watch that there signal a minute."
"Watch!" said the captain.
Again the seaward flashes came, as if they were asking questions.
"What is it—"
"Captain Havens!" shouted the old whaling man, excitedly. "That there was Lyme Avery's private signal. The Noank has come home! The other light was Joe Taber's, I guess. I've whaled it with both of 'em."
"Hurrah!" burst from the captain. "Signal back, if you know how."
"Shall we fire a gun, sir?" asked an artilleryman.
"No," said the captain; "we won't stir up the town. And we won't send any information to the British cruisers, either. See Hadden work his lantern."
The sailor was swinging the lantern given him,—this way, that way, up and down, and he was speedily replied to from the sea.
"Two craft comin' in together," he explained. "I guess it's the Noank and a prize."