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But it was not H.M.S. Nitocris that came out of the night glittering with electric lights and flying through the water at a speed that the fastest destroyer in the squadron could not have equalled. A whistle tooted softly, a white shape swung up out of the darkness and slowed down alongside the flagship.
Our ship, the "Franconia," the flagship of the fleet, had the headquarter staff, the 90th Regiment of Winnipeg, and a number of nurses on board, and she held place in the centre of the middle line. How an orderly fleet could be immediately dis-organized was well demonstrated one morning when our whistle blew sharply several times "Man Overboard."
The boat was not far from shore and he reached it in a few moments. He was overjoyed to recognize that it was, as he expected, one of the boats from the flagship. There were two occupants of the boat, one at the oars and the other in the stern. Clif did not recognize them, but he did not pause on that account.
Singularly enough, these ill-founded rejoicings were going on in Lisbon at the time the flagship was chasing the Portuguese fleet across the Equator! It is difficult to say how the Portuguese admiral contrived to reconcile this premature vaunt, and the unwelcome fact of his arrival in the Tagus, with the loss of half his troops and more than half his convoy.
Commodore Dewey drew off to replenish his magazines, of whose shortness of supply he had received disturbing reports. Advantage was taken of the cessation to give the men breakfast, for it is a well accepted principle that sailors as well as soldiers fight best upon full stomachs. As the wind blew aside the dense smoke, it was seen that the Reina Cristina, the Spanish flagship, was in flames.
To start with, I always insist that my officers shall wear strict uniform, and at the present moment I am grieved to see that you are wearing white socks." "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't know you would mind. The officers in the flagship wear them with white clothing." "I was not aware that I had asked you a question, Lieutenant Pardoe," interrupted the skipper, his beard bristling.
Atomic cannon began running out of enormous hatches, like the bristles jutting from a tendril brush. "Blast out!" Var screamed into his engine phone. His flagship leaped away at full drive, while the enemy seemed to grow on the screen. Then it diminished as they began drawing away from the fleet. There was nothing Var could do about the horror that followed.
The only instance of this kind which had hitherto occurred was my retention of 40,000 dollars captured at Maranham, and they who have perused the preceding narrative will be at no loss for the ground of my refusal to surrender to the Court of Admiralty a sum which would have been returned by that tribunal to their Portuguese brethren nor for my resistance to the plot which the ministers had formed to take it by force from on board the flagship.
There was more than one man in the flagship who recognized them well, and who shuddered at the recognition, instinctively recalling the recent terrible experience of the earth. Was this an outpost of the warlike Mars? Around these monstrous enemies we saw several of their engines of war.
Quickly the flagship signaled the French aboard the captured vessel to leave, and when they were over the side and well out of harm's way the French dreadnought opened fire on the cruiser. Men now emerged from below on to the deck of the captured vessel, and rushed rapidly about. An officer leveled a glass and took in the imposing sight of the French gathered about on all sides of him.
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