Bang! Bang!
"Hurrah! Hurrah!" Cheers went up in such volume as to be deafening.
"Tell the men to stop that cheering," shouted Major Wells, in order to make Dick and Greg hear him. "And tell them that no more men are to crowd the rail on either side. No noise, and nothing to make the ship list!"
Going down three steps at a time, Dick and Greg descended the companionway forward of the pilot house.
"No cheering!" shouted Prescott, pushing his way through the throng.
"Quiet!"
With Dick moving through the masses of soldiers on the port side of the deck, and Greg performing a similar office on the starboard side, quiet was soon restored. Then Captain Prescott's voice was heard announcing:
"You men must remain quiet, or how can the ship's officers make their orders heard? Remember, not a cheer after this. And no more men are to crowd to the rails."
"It's a pity that the rest of us cannot see what is going on!" half-grumbled a soldier, so close that Prescott heard him.
"I know just how you feel about that," the young captain admitted, wheeling and regarding the soldier. "But this is war, not sport. Absolute, uncomplaining discipline is the surest means of bringing this ship and its human cargo through safely."
Another captain and Lieutenants Terry and Overton had joined the first two officers on the deck, and order was maintained without a flaw.