When the cutter lost its headway, it was not more than fifty feet from the sloop.
"Hold the sloop as she is, and I will board you," said Mr.Pennant, as he saw the skipper filling away again.
"Keep off, or we will fire into you!" shouted the man on the forecastle, who appeared to be the principal man of the party.
"See that your pistols and cutlasses are ready for use," said the third lieutenant, in a tone loud enough to be heard by the crew only.
"We are all private citizens," added the sloop's spokesman.
"No matter what you are; I propose to overhaul you and judge for myself what you are," answered the officer in command of the cutter.

"Let go your sheet, skipper!" Instead of obeying the order, the boatman hauled in his sheet, and the sloop began to fill away.

Mr.Pennant could form no idea of what the party were.

It was possible that they were private citizens, and non-combatants; if they were, they had only to prove they were such by submitting to a further inquiry.
"Stand by, my men! Give way together, lively!" shouted the lieutenant as though he intended that those on board of the sloop should hear him as well as his own crew.
The cutter darted ahead; but she had not advanced half the distance before the men on board of the sloop fired a volley with muskets at the approaching boat.

Mr.Pennant dropped his left arm very suddenly, and the stroke oarsman went down into the bottom of the boat.
"Come aft, Kingston!" called the third lieutenant to the nearest man in the bow, and the one indicated crawled aft with all the haste he could make.