Page:Under Dewey at Manila.djvu/286

254 was a connection mine going up. They've got 'em out here, it would seem, but they made a bad miss of it that trip—about half a mile, I calculate. It's lucky we weren't sailing closer in, eh?"

"I should say so." Larry drew a long breath. "I think I'd rather fight with the guns, any day."

"So would all of us, lad; but we have to take what comes, and so does the enemy. We've got a whole lot of warships against us, but the Olympia's all right, and so are. the others, and we'll knock the spots off those Spaniards. Hurrah for Uncle Sam and remember the Maine!" he added loudly.

"Remember the Maine!" came back from a hundred voices, in heavy unison. That was the battle-cry, uttered thousands of times during those trying hours, just as during the Mexican War the cry was, "Remember the Alamo!" and during the Revolutionary War, "Remember Concord and Lexington!" Soldiers and sailors must have some cry to stir up their blood, and what cry was better for that purpose than one calling upon them to remember the martyrdom of two hundred and fifty-three of their comrades in arms?

The signal was now displayed from the American flagship to close up and prepare for general action,