"Tell us your story over again," the admiral said. "It's a strange one."
Harry again repeated the account of his adventures from the time of leaving his father's cottage. When he had done Admiral Nelson exclaimed:
"Very well, my lad. You could not have acted with more presence of mind had you been a captain of the fleet. You showed great bravery and did your duty nobly."
"There wasn't much bravery, sir," Harry said modestly, "for I knew that they were going to kill me anyhow, so that it made no difference. But I was determined, if possible, that the dispatches should be destroyed."
The admiral smiled. He was not accustomed to hear his dicta even so slightly questioned by a lad.
"You are an apprentice in the merchant service, Captain Skinner tells me," Sir Hyde Parker said, "and have been two years at sea."
"Yes, sir," Harry said.
"Would you like to be on the quarter-deck of one of his majesty's vessels, instead of that of a merchantman?"
Harry's eyes glistened at the question.
"I should indeed, sir," he said.