Richard Dale and Ethan Carlyle, at Jones’ command, plunged below to learn the cause of this. “Ammunition for the main deck,” roared Dale in a voice to be heard above the Englishman’s guns. The warrant officer in charge of the magazine stood at its locked door, a pistol in his hand, and when Dale and Ethan seized him roughly he said: “There was nothing else to do but lock the door, sir. The news came that the ship was sinking and the quartermaster released all the prisoners so that they might have a chance for their lives. See, the deck below here is crowded with them.” As Dale and Ethan looked they saw the truth of this; the gun deck was thronged with desperate looking men who greatly out-numbered the Richard’s crew, and they were huddling together, apparently for a rush to the main deck for an attempt to take the ship. The quick wit of Dale was equal to this new and novel danger. He leaped toward them and shouted in a voice that all could hear: “Men, the ship is sinking!” The faces of the great throng of released prisoners blanched; then Dale continued: “You have one chance for your lives; to the pumps, or you are all dead men!” With eager haste the British seamen sprang to obey; if they had known it, they could now have crawled through the ports of the Richard into the Serapis, for Captain Jones, by a masterly stroke of seamanship, had at length placed his vessel alongside the Englishman, and locked their yards together. But fate would have it that British brawn should keep the Richard afloat while her crew strove against their countrymen. As Ethan and Dale regained the main deck, the ammunition once more began to come through the hatches; but the guns were still silent. All this time the Serapis had been pouring death into the huge, helpless hulk of the American. The Richard was a wreck--shattered, reeling and all but sinking. Her crew had deserted her main deck, her dead lay about in heaps. The moonlight, streaming down upon the scene showed the slight figure of John Paul Jones as he worked desperately at a dismounted gun, almost alone, but with a determination to win that only death could destroy. Captain Pearson, of the Serapis, astonished at the Richard’s silence, now shouted: “Have you struck?” Jones lifted his head and his answer rang proudly above the din of the battle. “I have not yet begun to fight!” There was something in this answer that gave renewed courage to the American seamen; they manned their pieces once more; a steady fire from the tops slackened the gunnery of the Serapis, perceptibly; then a sudden flare showed the latter to be on fire, and her gun crews rushed to extinguish the blaze. In the meantime the Pallas had engaged the Countess of Scarborough, and after a brisk action had forced her to strike. The Alliance now advanced, and to the astonishment of all she poured a broadside into the Richard. “She’s been taken by the British!” gasped Longsword.