“So that the boat can see where it’s going,” replied Jim. 181
“Well,” said Mabel, with a gasp, “whatever else I take away from this country, I’ll have a choice collection of nightmares.”
The steamer made splendid weather of the trip to the Philippines, and in a few days they were steaming into Manila bay. Their hearts swelled with pride as they recalled the splendid achievement of Admiral Dewey, when, with his battle fleet, scorning mines and torpedoes, like Farragut at Mobile, he had signaled for “full speed ahead.”
“That fellow was the real stuff,” remarked Jim.
“As good as they make them,” agreed Joe. “And foxy, too. Remember how he kept that cable cut because he didn’t want the folks at Washington to queer his game. He had his work cut out and he wasn’t going to be interfered with.”
“Something like Nelson, when his chief ran up the signal to withdraw,” suggested Denton. “He looked at it with that blind eye of his and said he couldn’t see it.”
“Dewey was a good deal like Nelson,” said Joe. “Do you remember how he trod on the corns of that German admiral who tried to butt in?”
“Do I?” said Jim. “You bet I do.”
The party met with a warm welcome when they 182 went ashore at Manila. American officers and men from the garrison thronged the dock to meet the veterans of the diamond, whose coming had been widely heralded.
Many of them knew the players personally and all knew them by reputation.