However, Paul Jones was the last man in the world to think of danger; so
he put boldly out to sea, and took his chances.

It was not long before he had all England in a state of alarm. News came
that this daring American warship was taking prize after prize, burning
some and sending their crews ashore. He would hide along the English
coast from the men-of-war that went out in search, and then suddenly
dart out and seize some merchant ship.

The English called Captain Jones a pirate and all sorts of hard names.
But they were very much afraid of him and his stout ship. And this
voyage of his, along the shores of England, taught them to respect and
fear the American sailors more than they had ever done before.

After he had captured many British vessels, almost in sight of their
homes, he boldly sailed to the north and into the very port of
Whitehaven, where he had "tended store," as a boy, and from which he had
first gone to sea. He knew all about the place. He knew how many vessels
were there, and what a splendid victory he could win for the American
navy, if he could sail into Whitehaven harbor and capture or destroy the
two hundred vessels that were anchored within sight of the town he
remembered so well.

With two rowboats and thirty men he landed at Whitehaven, locked up the
soldiers in the forts, fixed the cannon so that they could not be fired,
set fire to one of the vessels that were in the harbor, and so
frightened all the people that, though the gardener's son stood alone on
the wharf, waiting for a boat to take him off, not a man dared to lay a
hand on him. With a single pistol he kept back a thousand men.

Then he sailed across the bay to the house of the great lord for whom
his father had worked as a gardener. He meant to run away with this
nobleman, and keep him prisoner until the British promised to treat
better the Americans whom they had taken prisoners. But the lord whom
he went for was "not at home," so all that Captain Jones's men could do
was to carry off from the big house the silverware of the earl. Captain
Jones did not like this; so he took the things from his men and returned
them to Earl Selkirk, with a letter asking him to excuse his sailors.

Not long afterward one of the British men-of-war which were in the hunt
for Captain Jones, found him. This was the _Drake_, a larger ship than
the _Ranger_ and carrying more men. But that did not trouble Paul Jones,
and soon there was a terrible figh