"She's to be blowed up! Wrecked in the harbour of Santiago de Cuba, so the Spaniards who are inside can't get out!"
Teddy looked around him in bewilderment and alarm, understanding not one word of the brief explanation.
"You see the Spanish fleet is inside the harbour, and the mouth of it ain't more'n three hundred feet wide. This steamer will be blowed up right across the channel, an' there the Spaniards are, bottled up tight till our fleet gets ready to knock 'em into splinters."
"But what'll become of me? I'll have to face the captain after all!"
"I reckon there's no help for it, lad, because it don't stand to reason that you want to go down with the ship."
"How long before you'll sink her?"
"We sha'n't have anything to do with it, lad. It's what you might call a precious fine job, an' 'cordin' to the way everybody looks at it, them who do the work ain't likely to come back again."
"Why not?"