LOOKING DEATH IN THE FACE
We left Dan curled up in a bunk, wondering how long it would be before the schooner would go to the bottom.
"What's that?" exclaimed Dan, starting up from the narrow berth on which he was sitting.
He had heard a crash and felt a jar that was different from the shocks he had been experiencing for the last half hour.
Suddenly the Battleship Boy leaped from the berth, splashing into the water knee deep, as another shock, more violent than the other, set the doomed schooner trembling from stem to stern.
"Another mast has gone by the board," he groaned.
"Bang!"
The sound was accompanied by a ripping and rending of woodwork as if the vessel were being torn apart by some strange, wonderful power.
"I can't stand this any longer. I've got to go on deck and find out what is occurring, even if I am swept overboard. I'm not going to die down in this hole anyway. It's no way for a jackie in Uncle Sam's Navy to end his life. Tommy, you'll have to get along the best way you can. Good-bye if I do not see you again."
There was a note of regret in the Battleship Boy's tone, as his glance lingered half regretfully on the ugly face of the parrot.