"I wonder if the fighting will be done while we lay at anchor?" I said like a simple that I was, and Phil replied with the air of one who is wiser than his comrade:-- "Certainly not. In the first place, Master Hackett says it is against all the rules for ships to fight in a harbor belonging to a nation with which we are not at war. Then again, it is necessary to manoeuvre the frigate while the fighting is going on, and to do that she must be on the open ocean." "I see no signs of our getting under way." "Then you must be blind indeed! Notice the men; each is at his proper station, and on the gun-deck the ammunition has already been brought out. Perhaps they have sanded the decks." I turned away from him impatiently. Of what good was it to mention such a sinister preparation as that? It quickened the blood in one's veins to see the crew standing motionless, ready to execute on the instant the first order which should be given; and made the cold chills run down a fellow's spine to think that measures were being taken to cover that which represented the life of our people. While I stood, half a coward and half eager to have a hand in the work about to be done, Benson was brought up from below--literally brought up, for he refused to lift hand or foot--and then dropped bodily into the boat alongside. Lieutenant Downes took his station in the stern-sheets, and the small craft was pulled quickly away, leaving us on the _Essex_ to meet the coming enemy. The wind fined down as the Britishers came into the harbor, the _Phoebe_ leading the way, and we had a good opportunity of examining them minutely. I had taken a station by Master Hackett's side, and therefore came to know a good many things which otherwise would have failed of attracting my attention. "They've taken on extra metal to meet us," the old sailor said with a chuckle, as if such fact pleased him wonderfully. "Thirty long eighteens, sixteen 32-pound carronades, one howitzer, an' six 3-pounders in her tops. That's givin' us the credit of bein' good fighters, even though they do accuse us of not darin' to tackle anything but whalers." "Did you ever see the other ship, Master Hackett?" I asked. "Ay, lad, time and time again. She's the _Cherub_, a 20-gun ship; but now she's carryin' twenty-eight in all--eighteen 32-pound carronades below, with eight 24-pound carronades and two long nines above. There can't be less than two hundred men on board, an' take it all in all, we've got a decently tough job laid out for us; but we'll tackle it in great style, lad. Why, the fact that the Britishers don't care to meet us with such a frigate as the _Phoebe_ alone, is enough to stiffen the backbone of every man jack belongin' to this 'ere craft." As the leading ship came nearer we could see that her crew was at quarters, and more than one old sea-dog looked aft questioningly, as if expecting our captain would give the word to prepare for action.