“Two of the guns are gone, sir,” Dale said coolly, “and some of our brave boys. But we will fight the other four guns as long as they will hold together.”
“You are a man after my own heart!” cried Paul Jones, “and every gun on this ship will be fought as long as they will hold together; and if we go down, it will be with our ensign flying.”
In the midst of the smoke and confusion Dale then saw Danny Dixon running about picking up a row of cartridges that he had just laid down for the use of the guns, and which a stray spark might have ignited.
“Right for you, boy!” cried Dale; and then, turning to the men at the other four eighteen-pounders, he ordered the guns examined. Two of them were cracked from the muzzle down. This was a terrible blow to the Bon Homme Richard, as the loss of this battery would leave only thirty-two twelve-pound guns to fight fifty eighteen-pounders; for, although the Serapis was classed as a forty-four, she really carried fifty guns.
“Mr. Dale, I’ve got a good crew here as ain’t afeerd o’ nothin’,” said one of the gun captains, seeing that Dale hesitated to give the order to load and fire, “and I’ll resk it with these ’ere two eighteens.”
An instant later both of them were fired, and, as soon as the smoke drifted off, Dale, speechless with dismay, pointed to the two guns. Both of them were defective, and there was no possibility of firing them again; the only wonder had been that they had not exploded as the first two did.
The gun captain, sent by Dale, went up to the commodore on deck, where he stood calmly giving orders that were distinctly heard above the uproar, and manœuvring his ship with the same coolness as if he were working her into a friendly roadstead.
“Sir,” said the man, touching his cap, “Mr. Dale says as how not another shot can be fired from the eighteen-pounders. They is cracked from breech to muzzle.”
“I knew it,” answered Paul Jones; “the instant the firing stopped, I knew it was impossible to fire another shot, for Dale would never have given it up as long as he could work his guns. Tell Mr. Dale I think the enemy will soon silence the smaller guns, and that if the ship should catch fire—”
“The water, sir, is pourin’ in by the hogshead through the holes in the hull—”
