red that if they could lay hands on the audacious
freebooter, as they called him, they would hang him at the yard arm.
But, before doing so, they had to catch him, and that proved a harder
task than they suspected. He was chased many times and often fired into,
but the _Providence_ was always swift enough to show a clean pair of
heels to her pursuers and Jones himself was such a fine sailor that he
laughed at their efforts to take him prisoner.

One of the cleverest exploits of Jones was performed in the autumn of
1776. He saw an American brig returning from the West Indies, heavily
laden with supplies for Washington's army, which was badly in need of
them. A British frigate was in hot pursuit of the American, which was
straining every nerve to escape, but would not have been able to do so
except for Jones, who ran in between the two, and, firing into the
frigate, induced her to let the American go and chase him. Taking
advantage of the chance thus offered, the brig got safely away and then
Jones himself dodged away from the frigate, which thus lost both.

In the month of October, 1776, Jones was promoted to the rank of captain
and ordered to cruise between Boston and the Delaware. I must tell you
an anecdote which illustrates his wonderful seamanship.

Some weeks before he was made a captain, and while cruising off Bermuda,
he saw five sail far to the windward and he beat up, doing so carefully
and with the purpose of finding out whether there was a chance for him
to strike an effective blow. He picked out what looked like a large
merchant ship and gave chase. He gained fast, but to his dismay, when he
was quite close, he discovered that instead of a merchant ship he had
almost run into a twenty-eight gun frigate of the enemy.

Finding he had caught a Tartar, Jones did the only thing left to him. He
hauled off and put on every stitch of sail and the frigate did the same.
She proved the better sailer, and, though she gained slowly, it was
surely, and in the course of a few hours she had approached within
musket shot of the brig's lee quarter. There seemed no possible escape
for Jones, knowing which, he did a remarkable thing. He veered off until
the frigate was almost astern, when he put about dead before the wind,
with every yard of canvas set.

The Englishman was dumfounded by the daring manoeuvre, which brought
the American within pistol shot, for he did not fire a gun until Jones
was beyond reach of his grape. T