"All, sir?"
The other strummed impatiently.
"I'm Lord Nelson."
The boy was dumb, his heart flaring.
And this was the man the nation worshipped!
Nelson turned his eye upon the boy. There was a sardonic droop about his lips.
"Mr. Carvell," he said slowly, "I have been a midshipman myself. Is this a joke?"
Kit flamed. He had given himself freely for this man, had died a hundred deaths for him—for this!
"If it's a joke, my lord," white-hot and thrilling, "it's a joke for which a good many men have died."
He saw once more the lower deck of the Tremendous. He recalled the man in the powder-magazine, and old Ding-dong dying beneath the cliff. He thought of Piper outside that door.