ohn Paul Jones: "I haven't begun to
fight yet!"

So they went at it again. The two ships were now lashed together, and
they tore each other like savage dogs in a fight.

The rotten old _Richard_ suffered terribly. Two of her great guns had
burst at the first fire, and she was shot through and through by the
_Serapis_ until most of her timbers above the water-line were shot away.
The British rushed on board with pistols and cutlasses, and the
Americans drove them back. But the _Richard_ was on fire; water was
pouring in through a dozen shot holes; it looked as if she must
surrender, brave as were her captain and crew. There were on board the
old ship nearly two hundred prisoners who had been taken from captured
vessels, and so pitiful were their cries that one of the officers set
them free, thinking that the ship was going to sink and that they ought
to have a chance for their lives. These men were running up on deck,
adding greatly to the trouble of Captain Jones; for he had now a crowd
of enemies on his own ship. But the prisoners were so scared that they
did not know what to do. They saw the ship burning around them and heard
the water pouring into the hold, and thought they would be carried to
the bottom. So to keep them from mischief they were set to work, some at
the pumps, others at putting out the fire. And to keep the ship from
blowing up, if the fire should reach the magazine, Captain Jones set men
at bringing up the kegs of powder and throwing them into the sea. Never
was there a ship in so desperate a strait, and there was hardly a man on
board, except Captain Jones, who did not want to surrender.

But the British were not having it all their own way. The American tars
had climbed the masts and were firing down with muskets and flinging
down hand grenades, until all the British had to run from the upper
deck. A hand grenade is a small, hollow iron ball filled with powder,
which explodes when thrown down and sends the bits of iron flying all
around, like so many bullets.

One sailor took a bucketful of these and crept far out on the yard-arm
of the ship, and began to fling them down on the gun-deck of the
_Serapis_, where they did much damage. At last one of them went through
the open hatchway to the main deck, where a crowd of men were busy
working the great guns, and cartridges were lying all about and loose
powder was scattered on the floor.

The grenade set fire to this powder, and in a second there w