Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/232

202 if we don't—well, a man can die but once, you know."

"I am willing enough to stay," answered the boy. "But I should like to know what has become of the Columbia," he added soberly, as he thought of the sturdy schooner staggering under the hurricane and struck by lightning, with Captain Ponsberry, Grandon, Mr. Wells, and his other friends aboard.

"Yes, lad, I'd like to know that myself," put in Striker. "And I should like to meet that furiner again. It's a pity he ain't a Spaniard, and on board one of them ships we're after."

Sergeant Joster was curious to hear their story, and as they had been treated so well by the marine, they did not hesitate to tell him.

"You are lucky dogs to escape being drowned," he said, when they had concluded. "Ninety-nine men out of a hundred would have gone down. That Olan Oleson ought to be strung up on a yard-arm, and he would be on most vessels. In the navy a man would be shot for a good deal less than he's done."

"The Columbia is going to remain in Hong Kong for several weeks—that is, if she got there at all," said Larry. "Perhaps the fleet will go back before that time."