"He's one
of your very quiet chaps. Your quiet ones always sail into a fight
while a brawler is getting his mouth wound up to do some talking."
"Hanged, if I don't wish them lads could remain on board!" muttered
another old salt.
"With the young lieutenant to command the ship?" asked another.
"Him as well as anyone. He knows what he's doing, for which reason I
don't care for the number of the year he was born in. Why, mates, the
lieutenant is the head of them submarine boys we've read so much about
in the newspapers when layin' in port. And the other two are his
messmates. Now, I'll stand for it that the submarine boys are good for
any kind of a job on salt water. I'd foller their lead on a battleship!"
It would have been fine for the three submarine boys had they been able
to know what great opinions the crew held of them.
But Hal was again on the bridge in the last watch, and Eph had gone
below for an hour's sleep ere he, like Jack Benson, was to be called.
Then, at last, two sleepy-eyed boys came from their cabins, going up
to the bridge for what they felt was their last hour of real sea-glory.
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