a cheery cry of "Sail-ho!" came from
the lookout at the mast-head.

Soon a large vessel was seen from the deck. On went the Yankee ship with
flying flag and bellying sails. The strange ship waited as if ready for
a fight. When the _Constitution_ drew near, the stranger hoisted the
British flag and began to fire her great guns.

It was the _Guerriere_. When he saw the Stars and Stripes, Captain
Dacres said to his men:

"That is a Yankee frigate. She will be ours in forty-five minutes. If
you take her in fifteen, I promise you four months pay."

It is never best to be too sure, as Captain Dacres was to find.

The _Guerriere_ kept on firing at a distance, but Captain Hull continued
to take in sail and get his ship in fighting trim, without firing a gun.
After a time Lieutenant Morris came up and said to him:

"The British have killed two of our men. Shall we return their fire?"

"Not yet," said Captain Hull. "Wait a while."

He waited until the ships were almost touching, and then he roared out:

"Now, boys; pour it into them!"

Then came a roaring broadside that went splintering through the British
hull, doing more damage than all the _Guerriere's_ fire.

Now the battle was on in earnest. The two ships lay side by side, and
for fifteen minutes the roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry
filled the air, while cannon balls tore their way through solid timber
and human flesh.

Down came the mizzen-mast of the _Guerriere_, cut through by a big iron
shot.

"Hurrah, boys!" cried Hull, swinging his hat like a schoolboy; "we've
made a brig of her."

The mast dragged by its ropes and brought the ship round, so that the
next broadside from the _Constitution_ raked her from stem to stern.

The bowsprit of the _Guerriere_ caught fast in the rigging of the
_Constitution_, and the sailors on both ships tried to board. But soon
the winds pulled the _Constitution_ clear, and as she forged ahead, down
with a crash came the other masts of the British ship. They had been cut
into splinters by the Yankee guns. A few minutes before she had been a
stately three-masted frigate; now she was a helpless hulk. Not half an
hour had passed since the _Constitution_ fired her first shot, and
already the _Guerriere_ was a wreck, while the Yankee ship rode the
waters as proudly as ever.

Off in triumph went the "Old Ironsides," and hasty repairs to her
rigging were made. Then she came up with loaded guns. The _Guerriere_
lay rollin