There was a harsh roar below; oaths, curses, imprecations, and cries were blasted up from the deck beneath them.
"Silence there!" shouted Jones. "Remember!" he said to the midshipman as he turned away.
"I shall not forget, sir," replied the boy, saluting proudly.
"Do what you can," said Jones, turning to McCollin,--"do what you can with the old eighteens."
"They shall be fought as long as they exist, sir," answered the young officer.
"I know that, sir," said Jones, glancing approvingly from him to the little groups of half-naked men clustered about the guns, the sweat streaming from their muscular bodies in the heat of the narrow, confined quarters, "and you have the men with you who will back you up."
A hoarse cheer which resounded throughout the dim recesses of the berth-deck bespoke the hearty acquiescence of the men in their captain's shrewd estimate of their qualities.
CHAPTER XIX
The captain, not ill pleased at this and other manifestations of hearty spirit which had met him on every hand, mounted the ladders and resumed his station on the high poop-deck of the frigate.