I. A Wounded Nation at Bay II. More Powder III. The Unforgotten Hero IV. The News from Trenton V. The Brig and the Schooner VI. The British Fleet VII. Hunting the _Noank_ VIII. Contraband Goods IX. The Picaroon X. The Black Transport XI. A Dangerous Neighborhood XII. A Prize for the _Noank_ XIII. The Bermuda Trader XIV. The Neutral Port XV. A Coming Storm XVI. Irish Loyalty XVII. Very Sharp Shooting XVIII. Down the British Channel XIX. The Spent Shot XX. Anchored in the Harbor THE NOANK'S LOG. CHAPTER I. A WOUNDED NATION AT BAY. It is well to fix the date of the beginning of a narrative. Through the mist and the icy rain, with fixed bayonets and steadfast hearts, up the main street of Trenton town dashed the iron men from the frost and famine camp on the opposite bank of the Delaware. Among their foremost files, leading them in person, rode their commander-in-chief. Beyond, at the central street crossing, a party of Hessian soldiers were half frantically getting a brace of field-pieces to bear upon the advancing American column. They were loading with grape, and if they had been permitted to fire at that short range, George Washington and all the men around him would have been swept away. Young Captain William Washington and a mere boy-officer named James Monroe, with a few Virginians and Marylanders, rushed in ahead of their main column. Nearly every man went down, killed or wounded, but they prevented the firing of those two guns. Just before their rush, the cause of American liberty was in great peril. Just after it, the victory of Trenton was secure. So it is set down in written history, and there are a great many curious statements made by historians. This was a sort of midnight, it is said,--the dark hour of the Revolutionary War. Manhattan Island, with its harbor and its important military and naval features, had been definitely lost to the Americans and occupied by the British. Its defences had been so developed that it was now practically unassailable by any force which the patriots could bring against it. From this time forward its harbor and bay were to be the safe refuge and rendezvous of the fleets of the king of England. Here were to land and from hence were to march, with only one important exception, the armies sent over to crush the rebellious colonies.