His voice rose until the air of the cabin seemed to shiver. He clenched his fist and shook it in our faces. “At this anchorage we can meet ’em with concerted fire! I don’t care how strong they are! I don’t give a damn how many officers, seamen and gunners they got from the St. Lawrence fleet! No strength, no skill can help ’em work up to us in an orderly manner! They’ll have to come up piecemeal—every which way! We can fight ’em all day; and with any luck we can beat ’em off! If we can’t, we’ll find a way of delaying ’em again—delaying ’em and delaying ’em, till we’ve saved the lake!”

He dropped his head. His eyes were round and fierce. “I say fight ’em here and fight ’em now! What have you got to say to that?”

Being New Englanders and sea captains, they had little to say. Most of them coughed dryly, waiting for others to do the talking. Colonel Wigglesworth slowly turned his sharp blue eyes and his hooked nose from captain to captain, like a watchful hawk. Then, to Arnold, he said: “It appears we’re all willing, General.”

Waterbury rose from his bench and jerked his cap hard down over his ears. “That’s settled! We’ll fight ’em here!”

Arnold went to the companionway and stood there, one foot on the ladder. “There’s just one more thing! This is the time for the British to discover us, because of the wind. We might unstep our masts and hide here till tomorrow; but tomorrow the wind might turn south. Then they’d have the weather gauge. We’ve got it now, and I propose to keep it! When the ship and the schooners are a mile or two to the south’ard, they’ll see the Revenge and bear up toward her. Then, gentlemen, a few of us’ll have to sail out and see what we can do. Unless we do so, it may occur to the British to tack back to the northward and come down on us from the northern end of the channel. We don’t want that: so we’ll let ’em see us pop out and pop back again. Then, unless I’m greatly mistaken, they’ll never think there’s any way of getting at us except to follow us in. There’s four that can go out fast and come back handily: the Congress, the Trumbull, the Washington and the Royal Savage. If there’s no objection, we’ll do it.”

Colonel Wigglesworth laughed grimly. “Objections! Good grief, General! There ain’t time to think of any!”

He was nearer right than he knew. The words had scarcely left his lips when there was a distant thump; a penetrating thud that fluttered the air in our crowded cabin. The British had sighted the Revenge and come about in chase of her.