In short, military men foresaw and predicted precisely such an attack as was so destructively made at a later date by the king's forces under Arnold.
Very dark was the night. Wakeful and watchful were the sentinels and guards at every battery. Moreover, boats were out, silently patrolling hither and thither, ready to run in and report whatever signs of danger they might discover. The sea-scouts could not be everywhere, however, nor could they see everything. Somehow or other, an exceedingly important arrival passed by them all in the darkness.
A little before midnight a solitary musket shot rang out at the seaward bastion of Fort Griswold, and the officer of the guard, with a party of soldiers, hurried to the spot to ascertain its meaning.
"Officer of the guard," responded the sentry to the formal hail, "two American lights, seaward. Flash, flash, and cover. There they are again."
One of the soldiers was an old sailor, and he exclaimed:--
"Captain Havens, jest let me watch that there signal a minute."
Again the seaward flashes came, as if they were asking questions.
"Captain Havens!" shouted the old whaling man, excitedly. "That there was Lyme Avery's private signal. The _Noank_ has come home! The other light was Joe Taber's, I guess. I've whaled it with both of 'em."
"Hurrah!" burst from the captain. "Signal back, if you know how."
"Shall we fire a gun, sir?" asked an artilleryman.
"No," said the captain; "we won't stir up the town. And we won't send any information to the British cruisers, either. See Hadden work his lantern."
The sailor was swinging the lantern given him,--this way, that way, up and down, and he was speedily replied to from the sea.
"Two craft comin' in together," he explained. "I guess it's the _Noank_ and a prize."
"I'll send word to Colonel Ledyard," said Captain Havens. "Hadden, you and four men come with me. I must go out and meet 'em with a boat. Lieutenant Brandagee, you may tell the colonel I will anchor the ships in the harbor mouth, so that their guns may support our batteries, if the British try to run in to-morrow."
Every gun would count in such a case, it was true, but half an hour later, on the deck of the _Noank_, he was told by Captain Morgan:--