Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/128

104 his lap, which the boy was reading with great eagerness. The book was entitled "Naval Heroes of History," and contained accounts of the stirring battles fought by Nelson, Perry, Jones, and other celebrities. The Rev. Martin Wells had loaned him the volume, and he was reading aloud to Striker.

"My, but I wish I had been there!" he cried, as he finished the account of the famous fight between the Serapis and the Bonhomme Richard. "How proud Paul Jones must have felt at that victory. And at such close quarters!"

"We'll have no such fighting any more," answered Luke Striker. " The old wooden vessels are gone, and with ships built of steel, and armed with guns that can hit the enemy six or seven miles off, it's not likely there will be any hand-to-hand, rough and tumble work. It's reduced to a science, as the parson would call it."

"Nelson's victory at Trafalgar was the greatest victory known to naval history," put in Hobson, who had come up in time to hear the talk. "No, I don't say it because I'm an Englishman, but because it's a fact. He had a splendid fleet of ships, it is true, but he had the combined fleets of France and