It is true that they learned many valuable things connected with the working of a war vessel, all of which would remain pleasant memories long after this cruise had become a thing of the past. The clever way in which the crew was piped to quarters as an enemy’s vessel was supposed to be sighted ahead, being really a floating target previously arranged and anchored, was thrilling in the extreme. And then, as the guns with which the Vixen was armed began to thunder, with the water flying up like a big geyser whenever the shot struck alongside the wooden target—would they ever forget how it made their ears ring for hours!
Since the percentage of “hits” turned out to be larger than ever before in a given number of shots, everybody aboard was in fine humor. Only some of the scouts pulled long faces, because they did not have a share in the grand work.
Hugh had been talking with the commander, however, for whom he conceived a great liking, and was in a position to cheer up the drooping spirits of these grumblers, of whom Alec Sands and Billy Worth were the chief offenders.
The scout master managed to get all of the fellows forward where they would not be in the way. At the time they were within plain sight of the coast, and the sea happened to be fairly smooth so that even the sickest of the scouts had become himself again.
“You fellows must stop looking as though you felt sorry you’d come,” Hugh told them. “Just see what we’ve learned already, and there are heaps of other things on the program that we’ve read all about, never thinking we’d have a chance to see with our own eyes how they were done. Just feel that salty air, will you? It makes me sniff right along, as if I couldn’t get enough of it. Now I know what ails the lot of you; and let me say right here that in good time we’re going to have our share in this war game!”
“Bully for you, Hugh!” exclaimed Billy, forgetting the respect due to the assistant scout master, which lack, however, went unnoticed in the general eagerness to learn what Hugh meant.
“You’ve had chances to pick up information,” remarked Alec, in an aggrieved tone, as though he could not get over being jealous of Hugh’s having been placed in the high position he occupied, “that none of the rest of us could command. I’ve seen you chatting time and again with the captain of the crew in charge here.”
“That’s where I got my information,” replied the other smilingly. “You see, Captain Conrad had met our friend, Professor Perkins, and I guess he told him a lot about what the scouts have done in the past, for he mentioned several things, and asked me a lot of questions about how they really happened. To-morrow’s program, if the weather permits, covers several maneuvers, the principal one of which is torpedo-launching practice. You know they have two tubes arranged for that very purpose aboard the Vixen, though as a rule scout cruisers don’t go in much for that sort of thing, depending on their speed to work damage, and surprise the enemy.”
“Torpedo practice, hey?” cried Billy, always having something to say. “That’s a thing I always wanted to see done, and I’ll be tickled half to death to get the chance right now.”
“But what part do we take in the game, Mr. Scout Master?” asked Alec with just the slightest sneer in his voice as he pronounced the title. He had long ago convinced himself that the boys had made a great mistake when they selected Hugh to that high office and that his own general knowledge of scoutcraft should have entitled him to holding it, instead.