CHAPTER XIV. SAIL HO! Although we--and I mean the crew--had no assurance that our fleet would soon engage the enemy, every man appeared to be positive a battle was near at hand. The unfurling of that blue banner appeared a promise to be fulfilled in the near future, and when the excitement had in a measure died away we began discussing the probable result, no one venturing to suggest that the Britishers might possibly come off best. Victory seemed assured, despite the fact that Commodore Barclay carried thirty-five long guns to our fifteen; we said to ourselves that Perry would soon lay us alongside the enemy, when our smaller pieces must equalize the weight of metal. Why every man felt confident a battle was very near at hand, I am unable to say. Beyond the fact that the officers had been discussing the advisability of attacking the enemy in Malden harbor, should he refuse to come out, there was nothing to indicate an immediate meeting with him, yet we spoke among ourselves as if a decisive engagement would positively be fought on the morrow. Old Silas was the only man among the crew, with the exception of the officers, who had ever smelled burning powder in a fight on shipboard, and this night his opinion was eagerly sought for and implicitly relied upon. “From what our commodore did at the taking of Fort George, I hold to it we shan’t work at long range many minutes, if it so be the wind serves us properly,” he said to the group of men around him, among which were Alec and I, and my comrade interrupted by saying proudly:-- “You may be certain of that! Oliver isn’t one who will hang off when an enemy is within striking distance!” The old gunner paid no attention to this remark, but continued, as soon as the lad ceased speaking:-- “Leftenant Forrest told me that our scouts have reported the Britishers’ strength to be much in this ’ere way. The ship _Detroit_, just off the stocks, so to speak, carryin’ nineteen guns, one in pivot, an’ two howitzers; the ship _Queen Charlotte_, with seventeen guns an’ a howitzer; the schooner _Lady Prevost_ mountin’ thirteen guns an’ a howitzer; the brig _Hunter_ of ten guns; the sloop _Little Belt_, carryin’ three guns, an’ the schooner _Chippewa_, with one gun an’ two swivels. Now as you all know without my tellin’ you, our strength is fifty-two guns an’ two swivels. If Captain Dobbins were here with the _Ohio_, we’d be a little better off; but seein’s he has gone to Presque Isle, it’s a case of gettin’ on without him, which is like to make his heart ache when we sail into the bay with a long string of prizes.” “My father would not have gone at such a time unless he had been ordered to do so,” I said quickly, thinking for the moment that the gunner would have it understood differently.