Andre Norton, one of America's best loved and ever-popular writers of adventure tales, presents another exciting story of men and deeds on the high seas - a thrilling chapter in America's fierce struggle for independence, when boldness and courage reaped bounties for the Yankee privateers and wreaked havoc for the British. Here is the story of a young nation, filled with the pride of freedom, bringing its war to the very shores of the mother country. This is also the story of Fitzhugh Lyon, young American scion of a powerful English family, who finds himself shanghaied aboard the Retaliation, and is suddenly thrust into the exciting life of a privateersman; of Captain Crofts, dauntless, courageous master of his ship, sailing fearlessly into the lion's mouth; of Watts, the ship's surgeon, a man of wit and culture among a rough and tumble crew; of Lieutenant Ninnes, whose bitter hatred of Fitz make them deadly enemies. How they crossed the wartime sea, fought for their lives, were captured by the British, and finally engineered a bold and clever escape from Plymouth's notorious Old Mill Prison make for topflight entertainment.