Page:A Sailor Boy with Dewey.djvu/260

242 waters had reached all of our ears. We listened intently and presently another report followed.

"It is a shot from a man-o'-war!" I burst out. "If it's an American ship we are saved!"

"Perhaps it is the Concord!" came from Dan. "Don't you remember what Watt Brown said?"

"Yes; but could she come in here?"

"There would be no need. She has that Chinese junk at her mercy."

"Sure an' if it's wan of our warships we must be afther flyin' a signal of distress!" exclaimed Matt Gory.

"That is true, Matt; but how can we do it?"

"Here is a flag," answered Dan, hauling it from the case in the closet. "If we can get that up"

"Oi'll put it up!" cried the Irishman, who was too excited to even think of the danger. "Here goes!" and he hurried to a passageway leading through to the forecastle.

I could not resist the temptation to follow him, and Dan did the same. We entered the forecastle to find it as much disordered as our stateroom had been, for the Tagals had used it as a shelter during their brief stay on the Dart.

"Now to get up the mast unobserved!" whispered the Irish sailor, and moving cautiously out upon the forward deck, he started to carry out his design, the flag under his arm.