The _Ajax_ was still in stays; but her commander found time to fire his battery of stern-chasers, the balls whistling harmlessly past the _Rattler's_ stern, missing her widely. In reply to this Captain Symington again lifted his old beaver hat. Far away to the leeward were the sails of the blockading squadron. Attracted by the firing of the _Ajax_, they flew their little flags and crowded on their canvas. But by this time the _Rattler_ had doubled the point and was making out into the dancing waters of the Channel. And who was going to touch her where she had sea-room? As if anxious to have everything understood, Symington raised his ensign. The English captain, who had been forced to boxhaul his great vessel in order to avoid running on the shoals, cursed beneath his breath. One of the ladies turned to the Admiral's wife. "I wonder why we did not start after her, Madame?" she asked. "Oh, because we couldn't turn round quick enough, I suppose," she rejoined. Then turning to her spouse she asked:-- "Was not that it, Sir John?" "Yes, my dear," responded the Admiral, grimly; "that was just it." Down below, Captain Edgar had not yet recovered from his laughing fit; and when he and Captain Myron Symington met again, as they did many times afterwards, they used to laugh over it together. THE NARRAGANSETT "Twenty of those confounded Yankees give me more trouble than three decks full of Frenchmen," remarked Captain Brower of the prison-ship _Spartan_, one of the fleet of dismantled battle-ships that thronged the harbor of Plymouth, England. Lieutenant Barnard, commanding the neat little sloop of war _Sparrow_, then on the guard station, laughed. "They are troublesome beggars, sure enough," he said; "but the funny thing is that they behave almost exactly the way our fellows do, or at least would under the same circumstances; that I verily believe." "Well, such insolence and impudence I never saw in my life," returned Brower. "I shall be glad when I get rid of this last batch and will rest easy when they have been sent ashore to Dartmoor. You should have seen the way they behaved about two weeks ago. Let me see, it was the evening of the fourth, I believe. In fact the whole day through they were at it--skylarking and speech-making and singing."