“If we do,” General Waterbury protested, “we’ll never get away if we’re outgunned! They’ve got a full-rigged ship, so I guess there’s no doubt they’re superior. A running fight, I say! On the lake we’ll have a chance to haul out if we’re sinking. Why, we’re cornered, here.”

“You want to fight ’em on a retreat?” Arnold asked.

Waterbury coughed. “Isn’t it better to save some ships than not save any?”

The captains clamored among themselves. Their words were lost in the clattering and thudding on the deck above.

Arnold stood up and thumped the table. The captains were silent. “All right!” Arnold said. “That’s what some of you think; and here’s what I think! The object of this fleet isn’t to save itself! We’ve got just one job—to keep the British from getting through to Ticonderoga and the Hudson on this campaign—to save the lake from them for this year. What happens to us doesn’t matter, as long as we keep them where they are! If luck’s against us, which I trust under God it won’t be, then we can talk of retreat, but not till then! That’s my opinion!

“Let’s suppose, gentlemen, we abandon this anchorage and fight the British on a retreat. What have we got to do it with? You know as well as I do! We have vessels of varying speeds, sizes and batteries, manned by landsmen no more capable of laying guns than of laying eggs! If the British are superior in ships and guns and men, as General Waterbury thinks, any attempt to engage them openly on the lake can result only in disaster. They’ll catch us separately and pound us to pieces! We’ll never have a chance of winning or escaping either! We wouldn’t delay ’em half an hour!

“On the other hand, gentlemen, suppose we remain at this anchorage. The British go past us. The wind’s in the north. We’ve got the weather gauge! We can jump out at ’em, those that are fastest, chop up the slow ones and get back here to the anchorage!”

He banged a fist on the table. “Then let ’em come, by God! Let ’em beat up into this strait! Let ’em stick their heads into this crescent! They’ll never board us! They can’t do it! They’ve got to stay out in front of us: swap shot for shot with us! If our men could only shoot—by God, if they’d sent us the tenth part of what we needed—if those damned mercenary rats on the seaboard hadn’t put all their sailors and all their dirty damned money into privateers, so there was nothing left for the defense of their country—we could fight off twice our strength in ships and guns! Yes, and we can do it now! Now! Now!”