Away marched the last squad of the crew of the _Noank_, and Mrs. Avery stood at the gate and watched them until they were hidden from her eyes beyond the turn of the road. CHAPTER IV. THE NEWS FROM TRENTON. "What is it, Sam?" "I guess, Lyme, we'd better hold on a bit. The fort lookout sends word that a British cruiser's in sight, off the harbor." Sam Prentice was in a rowboat, just reaching the side of the _Noank_, and his commander was leaning over the rail. "I'd like to send a shot at her," he said. "None o' those ten-gun brigs, if it's one o' them, carry long guns or heavy ones." "Can't say," replied Sam. "Maybe it's a bigger feller. He won't dare to run in under the battery guns, anyhow. He can't look into the harbor." "I wish he would," laughed the captain. "If he's goin' to try a game of tackin' off and on, and watchin', though, we must make out to run past him in the night." "We mustn't be stuck any longer here," said Sam. "Are all the crew aboard?" "All but you," was the reply. "Send your boat ashore. We'll find out what she is. I won't let any single cruiser keep me cooped up in port, now my powder and shot's found for me. We'll up anchor, Sam." The first mate of the _Noank_, for such he was to be, came over the rail, and his boat was pulled shoreward. "Isn't she fine!" he said, as he glanced admiringly around him. "We're in good fightin' order, Lyme." "Sam," said the captain, "just study those timbers, will ye. Only heavy shot'd do any great harm to our bulwarks. I had her built the very strongest kind. Now! Some o' the new British craft are said to be light timbered, even for rough weather. Their own sailors hate 'em, and we can take their judgment of 'em." "It's likely to be good," said Sam. "What a British able seaman doesn't know 'bout his own ship, isn't worth knowin'." Further talk indicated that they both held high opinions of the mariners of England. Against them, as individuals, the war had not aroused any ill feeling. There was, indeed, among intelligent Americans, a very general perception that King George's war against his transatlantic subjects was anything but popular with the great mass of the overtaxed English people. It was a pity, a great pity, that stupid, bad management and recklessly tyrannical statesmanship, in a sort of combination with needless military severities, had done so much to foster hatred and provoke revenge. It was true, too, although all Americans did not know or did not appreciate it, that their side of the controversy had been ably set forth in the Parliament of Great Britain by prominent and patriotic Englishmen, such as Chatham and Colonel Barre. The old whaler _Noank_, of New London, however, had now become an American war vessel. Her crew and her commander were compelled, henceforth, to regard as enemies the captains and the crews of all vessels, armed or unarmed, carrying the red-cross flag instead of the stars and stripes.