r Juno, twenty-two guns, after
a night action of about forty minutes. We left the Ranger bound for
France, and apparently not much injured."

"What! what! God bless me, young men, you don't mean it! Sunk her,
did you say, and in forty minutes! Gentlemen, gentlemen, do you hear
that? Three cheers for Captain John Paul Jones!"

Just then one of the committee of Congress, and evidently its
chairman,--a man whose probity and honor shone out from his open
pleasant face,--interrupted,--

"But tell me, young sir,--Lieutenant Seymour of the navy, is it not?
Ah, I thought so. What is her lading? Is it the transport we have
hoped for?"

"Yes, sir. Lieutenant Talbot here has her bills of lading and her
manifest also."

"Where is it, Mr. Talbot?" interrupted the officer; "let me see it,
sir. I am General Putnam, in command of the city."

The general took the paper in his eagerness, but as he had neglected to
bring his glasses with him, he was unable to read it.

"Here, here," he cried impatiently, handing it back, "read it yourself,
or, better, tell us quickly what it is."

"Two thousand stand of arms, twenty field-pieces, powder, shot, and
other munitions of war, ten thousand suits of winter clothes, blankets,
shoes, Colonel Seaton and three officers and fifty men of the Seaforth
Highlanders and their baggage, all _en route_ for Quebec," said Talbot,
promptly.

The crowd was one seething mass of excitement. Robert Morris turned
about, and lifting his hat from his head waved it high in the air amid
frantic cheers. Putnam and his officers and the other gentlemen of the
committee of Congress seized the hands of the two young officers in
hearty congratulation.

"But there is something still more to tell," cried Mr. Morris; "your
ship, her battered and dismantled condition, the rents in the
sails--you were chased?"

"Yes, sir," replied Seymour, "and nearly recaptured. We escaped,
however, through a narrow channel extending across George's Shoal off
Cape Cod, with which I was familiar; and the English ship, pursuing
recklessly, ran upon the shoal in a gale of wind and was wrecked, lost
with all on board."

"Is it possible, sir, is it possible? Did you find out the name of the
ship?"

"Yes, sir; one of our seamen who had served aboard her recognized her.
She was the Radnor, thirty-six guns."

"That's the ship that Lord Dunmore is reported to have returned to
Europe in," said Mr. Clymer, another member of