“Boatswain’s Mate O’Neil, sir, may he go too?” Phil asked hesitatingly.
“Well! Well!” laughed the captain; “yes, I shall see that your good man Friday goes too.”
Within an hour the squadron was under way, and the boys took their last view of La Boca, not without regrets, for the leaf just turned in their life histories had been an interesting one. As they scanned the scenes of the recent adventures they could hardly be expected to realize that the stirring deeds of the past few weeks formed but a milestone in the career of one who served his country on the seas.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] “I thought our numbers were made.” Each officer and man in the navy is denoted by a number, and when one is called by a higher authority his number is called or “made” by signal flags. O’Neil’s meaning is that a Higher Authority had “made” their numbers.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
Archaic or alternate spelling has been retained from the original.