"I knew you would. I came ashore purposely to meet you."
"Don't I? Then perhaps I have made a mistake. I thought you were John Tempest----"
"That is my name; but how did you know me, and why did you want me?"
"Give me your hand. We shall be comrades in many a fight. I am Captain Harry Vernon of the _Lively Bee_."
Out in the bay the American fleet was preparing to depart.
Commodore Rodgers had just heard of the declaration of war, and he was afraid that the order to detain him in the harbor would be signed and delivered to him before he could start.
He called Captains Bainbridge and Stewart and Porter to the flagship and asked abruptly:
Rodgers was blunt and always spared himself words.
"Do you want to fight on the high seas or skulk like old hulks in the harbor?" he asked, and added quickly: "You need not answer. I know you well. Go back, get ready; we will start within an hour, and once outside the Narrows, no President's order can reach us."
The captains swung themselves over the side and were rowed back to their vessels.
It was a pretty sight. Those "wooden walls" of Columbia, in all the bravery of trimly taut rigging, yards crossed in mathematically precise order, hulls newly painted, ports open to reveal the lines of frowning guns, presented a sight which was enough to rouse the enthusiasm of every patriot on land.
The fleet under the command of Commodore Rodgers consisted of the flagship _President_, carrying forty-four guns; the _Essex_, thirty-two, and the _Hornet_, eighteen.
These three vessels were anchored off the Battery, but they did not comprise the entire fleet, for over against what is now Liberty Island were three more, the _United States_, mounting forty-four guns, a sister-ship to the _President_; the _Congress_, thirty-eight, and the _Argus_, sixteen.
Fifty minutes only elapsed after the conference on the flagship before the entire fleet was under sail.
"Come, my boys," said Captain Vernon, "we have to overtake the _Lively Bee_ before she reaches the Narrows, and it is a long pull."
Vernon took the helm, young Tempest the bow oar, and a tough old salt the oar next him.
It was not until they were seated that Tempest saw the face of the sailor next him, and at once took a fancy to him.