“What is it, Dick?” asks Commodore Paul Jones, alive in a moment. “Something too deep for me, Commodore, or I shouldn’t be here with the tangle. Commissioner Lee, with Landais, has taken the _Alliance_.” “What?” “It’s as I say. Lee declares that Doctor Franklin had no authority to depose Landais. He, Lee, has restored him to command, and the pair have possession of the ship.” “What did you do?” “I did nothing. I’m a sailor, and pretend to no knowledge of the limits of Mr. Lee’s authority. Speaking for myself, I refused to serve with Landais; and Lieutenants Stack, McCarty and Lunt, and Midshipman Lindthwait did the same. We came ashore, and Bo’sen Jack Robinson at the head of sixty of the crew came with us.” Commodore Paul Jones, while Lieutenant Dale talks, is thinking. What is to be done! Manifestly nothing. Doctor Franklin is out of reach. Without the Doctor’s authority no one can meddle with Arthur Lee, who still has his powers as a commissioner. Besides, there’s the _Serapis_; it is only a question of weeks when he, Commodore Paul Jones, will be given its command. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Dale and the others can disport themselves ashore, as he does. Let Lee and Landais keep the _Alliance_, since they already have it. “You’ve done right, Dick,” he says. “Stay ashore then, and keep the lads together; we’ll wait for the _Serapis_. Also, King Louis has given Doctor Franklin the _Ariel_, a ship-sloop the size of the old _Ranger_. When I take the _Serapis_ to sea, Dick, you shall sail Captain of the _Ariel_.” Lieutenant Dale goes his way, and Commodore Paul Jones returns to Aimee, pleased in secret to think he may continue unhindered to sun himself in her smiles. It grinds a bit to think of the “dog Landais,” and the “traitor Arthur Lee,” in control of the _Alliance_. Still, all will come right; for is he not to have the _Serapis_? And while he waits, there is Aimee; and love is even sweeter than war. So he goes back to his goddess, with her deep eyes and red-gold hair, and puts such caitiff creatures as Lee and Landais outside his thoughts. It is for Congress to deal with them. Commodore Paul Jones is not permitted to forget Lee and Landais. Within the hour, he is again called from the side of Aimee by his friend Genet, a noble upperling in the French foreign office. “I come to tell you,” says Genet, “that Captain Landais and Monsieur Lee have got the _Alliance_.” “I know!” “They are to sail in three days.” “Lieutenant Dale has told me.” “He did not tell you that we have issued orders to Thevenard, who commands the forts at the barrier, to sink the _Alliance_, should she try to put to sea.” “Sink the _Alliance_!” Commodore Paul Jones is thunderstruck. “My dear Genet, you jest.” “No jest, my friend. The orders have been given. Should the _Alliance_ attempt to pass the harriers, Thevenard will fire on it with all his hundreds of big guns, and snuff it out like a candle. It is by request of your Doctor Franklin.”