Turning on the surgeon with perfect self-possession, Captain Jones replied, as if astounded at the request: “What, Doctor! Would you have me strike to a drop of water? Here, help me get this gun over.” The doctor ran back to the wounded without delay, but Jones got the gun over, and he served it, too. A squad of twenty marines under Colonel de Chamilard had fled from the quarter-deck, where they had been stationed to pick off the enemy’s gun crews. The enemy made an attempt to board. John Paul Jones, with a few men, pikes in hand, stopped him. The moonlight was now bright, and seeing this man before them--this “pirate”--they quailed. Meantime matters had been going from bad to worse below decks on the _Bonhomme Richard_. Not only was she steadily filling with water; the blazing wads from the enemy’s guns had set her afire in several places. These fires spread rapidly in spite of the efforts of some men sent below. And then came the _Alliance_ under Captain Landais. Sailing across the bow of the _Bonhomme Richard_ and the stern of the _Serapis_, of course, as they lay together, he fired a broadside. The forecastle of the _Bonhomme Richard_ received the greater part of the projectiles, and Midshipman Caswell was killed, while ten or a dozen seamen were killed and wounded. Private signals were set, and a score of voices yelled to the _Alliance_ that they were firing into the wrong ship; but coming down on the broadside of the _Bonhomme Richard_, she fired again, so that the cry arose: “The _Alliance_ has been captured by the British and is now attacking us.” It is likely that this was the only moment when John Paul Jones thought of yielding, but as the _Alliance_ drew off he continued the fight not only against the enemy, but against the fire and water in his own ship. And more to be feared were the fire and water. The ship was filling, and when the carpenter tried the water, he found it five feet deep in her hold, while the fire was rapidly approaching the magazine. On coming from the well, he said disconsolately that the ship would sink. At that the Master at Arms liberated the prisoners, two or three hundred in number, who were confined below, and told them to save themselves. The struggle and confusion that followed as these men came from their quarters were frightful. Here were, indeed, many more English subjects running free than all the crew of the _Bonhomme Richard_ who were below decks. There were almost as many as the entire crew. Then the gunner, who had heard the remark about sinking and had seen the prisoners liberated, ran to the poop-deck, and in a panic of fear strove to find the signal halliards that he might haul down the flag in token of surrender. He was shouting as he ran: “Quarter! for God’s sake, quarter! Our ship is sinking”; but John Paul Jones heard the words, and turning around, he hurled an empty pistol at the man’s head, fractured his skull by the blow, and knocked him headlong down the hatch.