“You see, boys, Captain Craven had a law similar to your scout law; and, according to that, the captain of a sinking ship cannot think of saving himself until everyone else on board has been rescued. He obeyed this law of his calling without hesitation; and, when the pilot had made his escape down the manhole and been picked up and rescued, the water rose and filled the turret, and the captain went down with his ship. The whole thing could not have lasted more than a few minutes, although it must have seemed much longer; and, in that time, Captain Craven had maintained his honor and that of his country at the expense of his own life, while at the same time saving the life of another human being.”
George had realized the scene with so much vividness as he told the story, that all the three boys present felt as if they, too, had witnessed Captain Craven’s act of heroism. Dick felt, somehow, as if the opening of the manhole were right before them in the middle of the floor of the shack, and all three of them shared in his feeling. There was a long pause during which they visualized that scene in the turret of the Tecumseh.
George finally broke the silence:
“When the Admiral had finished, I sat back in my chair in a quiet kind of way, and after a while, the old gentleman spoke.
“‘You see, Gray,’ said he, ‘Craven only did his duty; but what enabled him to do his duty at that moment so nobly was the fact that he had done it hundreds of times before—again, and again, and again—in the ordinary affairs of his life and work. If he had been in the habit of shirking his studies, or of being mean to other fellows, or of yielding to fear in his ordinary life from day to day, he would have formed habits which would have made it difficult or impossible for him to be generous and manly when the supreme test came.’
“I couldn’t say very much,” continued George, “except to thank the old gentleman,—but I thought to myself, ‘You’re just such another one as Craven; and, if you were to ask me to cut off my finger, or my hand, I’ll be hanged if I wouldn’t do it.’
“Well, after that,” George went on, “I began to think about the Academy, and I seemed to see a thousand things that I might have done differently and better; and it seemed to me that I could hardly wait until vacation was over to get back to my work. Maybe, when you come back from your cruise, Dick will write me a letter and say how you got on, but I advise you to do the same thing that I’m going to do,—to think of that story every day and to put more push into doing the things that my oath requires.
“I suppose you fellows are going to have your meeting now, and I’ll go up to the house and unpack my trunk; I’ll see you again at supper.”
There was another pause after George had left the three boys, until finally Chippie remarked:
“I never thought of that before, fellows; but, when you do act in one way right straight along, you learn to do it better all the time. You remember a year ago I couldn’t knock up a ball decently; but I worked at it quite a lot, and the more I did it, the easier it came.”