CHAPTER VIII.

AFLOAT WITH THE NAVAL MILITIA.

As a rule boys seem to recover from seasickness much sooner than older people. While several of the scouts still looked a bit “peaked,” and seemed to have only a shadow of their former appetite on the first morning out, Hugh knew they were coming around bravely. Before that day ended they would be all right, having adjusted themselves to the motion of the vessel.

With such a delightful experience before them, it would have been strange indeed if any fellow could have allowed himself to be chained down by such a small thing. And a determination to overcome the distressing malady is after all half the battle.

The _Vixen_ was heading almost due north. It was no part of the commander’s plan of campaign to go very far out of sight of land at any time. The annual practice of the naval militia is only entered into with the idea of giving the boys a certain amount of familiarity with handling a war vessel and all that this implies.

Uncle Sam does not expect to man all his battleships, cruisers, torpedo boats and other fighting craft in the piping times of peace. It would be altogether unnecessary and at the same time very expensive. From time to time some of these grim vessels of war are laid up in the various Government yards, either undergoing repairs or just standing idle.

At such times their former crews are distributed around on other boats, or else discharged, the time of the enlistment of the men having expired. In case a sudden need should arise for manning these idle craft, the services of the Naval Reserve would become very valuable. Uncle Sam recognizes this fact, and in gratitude to the young men who form the main part of the reserve corps, extends every facility possible toward making their several weeks’ practice afloat of real benefit.

On the _Vixen_ they took almost sole charge, and with a few seasoned officers to superintend things, pursued a systematic course of drill that would enable them to man a cruiser or a torpedo boat during war times with the skill of regulars.

Besides this they showed the utmost enthusiasm in their work that was most promising. Their time being so short, and all these things so new and novel, the practice took on the atmosphere of a holiday rather than a working period. Perhaps had they been compelled to look forward to three long years of the same sort of thing, they might not have enjoyed it half so well.

As that first day wore on some of the scouts began to show signs of disappointment. There seemed to be next to nothing that they could do aboard but watch the drills of the Reserve men; and to boys that soon becomes tiresome since they aspire to have a hand in whatever is going on.

It is true that they learned many valuable things connected with the working of a war vessel, all of which would remain pleasant memories long after this cruise had become a thing of the past. The clever way in which the crew was piped to quarters as an enemy’s vessel was supposed to be sighted ahead, being really a floating target previously arranged and anchored, was thrilling in the extreme. And then, as the guns with which the _Vixen_ was armed began to thunder, with the water flying up like a big geyser whenever the shot struck alongside the wooden target—would they ever forget how it made their ears ring for hours!

Since the percentage of “hits” turned out to be larger than ever before in a given number of shots, everybody aboard was in fine humor. Only some of the scouts pulled long faces, because they did not have a share in the grand work.

Hugh had been talking with the commander, however, for whom he conceived a great liking, and was in a position to cheer up the drooping spirits of these grumblers, of whom Alec Sands and Billy Worth were the chief offenders.

The scout master managed to get all of the fellows forward where they would not be in the way. At the time they were within plain sight of the coast, and the sea happened to be fairly smooth so that even the sickest of the scouts had become himself again.

“You fellows must stop looking as though you felt sorry you’d come,” Hugh told them. “Just see what we’ve learned already, and there are heaps of other things on the program that we’ve read all about, never thinking we’d have a chance to see with our own eyes how they were done. Just feel that salty air, will you? It makes me sniff right along, as if I couldn’t get enough of it. Now I know what ails the lot of you; and let me say right here that in good time we’re going to have our share in this war game!”

“Bully for you, Hugh!” exclaimed Billy, forgetting the respect due to the assistant scout master, which lack, however, went unnoticed in the general eagerness to learn what Hugh meant.

“You’ve had chances to pick up information,” remarked Alec, in an aggrieved tone, as though he could not get over being jealous of Hugh’s having been placed in the high position he occupied, “that none of the rest of us could command. I’ve seen you chatting time and again with the captain of the crew in charge here.”

“That’s where I got my information,” replied the other smilingly. “You see, Captain Conrad had met our friend, Professor Perkins, and I guess he told him a lot about what the scouts have done in the past, for he mentioned several things, and asked me a lot of questions about how they really happened. To-morrow’s program, if the weather permits, covers several maneuvers, the principal one of which is torpedo-launching practice. You know they have two tubes arranged for that very purpose aboard the _Vixen_, though as a rule scout cruisers don’t go in much for that sort of thing, depending on their speed to work damage, and surprise the enemy.”

“Torpedo practice, hey?” cried Billy, always having something to say. “That’s a thing I always wanted to see done, and I’ll be tickled half to death to get the chance right now.”

“But what part do we take in the game, Mr. Scout Master?” asked Alec with just the slightest sneer in his voice as he pronounced the title. He had long ago convinced himself that the boys had made a great mistake when they selected Hugh to that high office and that his own general knowledge of scoutcraft should have entitled him to holding it, instead.

“Yes,” added Monkey Stallings, “do we play the part of the torpedo, or the whale that we used to sing about, you remember in ‘Pinafore’? I don’t care who acts as the big fish so long as I’m allowed to be the shooting stick that gallops through the water and rams things in its way. You want to give Captain Conrad a hint that I’d make the finest torpedo in the bunch.”

“I guess that’s right, Monkey,” laughed Don Miller, who thought the new recruit as comical a specimen as he had ever met, and was never tired of being amused by his remarks and antics. “If they chucked you into a torpedo tube and shot you out headed for a hostile ship there’d sure be something doing right away. You’d beat any old torpedo that ever wiggled its way under water. But we can’t spare you, Monkey. We need you to keep the blues away, don’t we, fellows?”

“So say we all of us!” declared Sam Winter. “But, Hugh, you haven’t told us if we’re going to have any part in the torpedo-launching practice?”

“Nothing to count for much, I’m sorry to say,” replied the leader. “The boats are sent out to recover the torpedo that has been shot and some of us may be allowed to go along. Our time comes on the third day!”

“That sounds more like it, Chief!” exclaimed Billy gleefully. “Please let us know what the program calls for then.”

“You know,” said Hugh, “that the Coast Artillery have their summer maneuvers about this time, and it happens that some of the boys are occupying a certain fort not more than fifty miles away from here, practicing firing at a target away out on the water with some of the big coast defense disappearing guns of a modern make.”

“Oh! I begin to smell a rat!” Blake Merton exclaimed, his face lighting up with sudden enthusiasm and hope.

“Well, it has been arranged as a part of the practice for both arms of the Government service that the Naval Reservists try to take the fort by surprise. Of course the defenders will be on the watch every minute, and it is a part of the game that if those aboard the _Vixen_ manage to get within a certain distance unobserved, after making a landing under cover of darkness, they will be credited with a victory; while the Coast Battery must be given a black mark. Well, that’s where the commander gave me to understand the scouts might be used to good advantage!”

“Go on and tell us some more, Chief! You’ve got the whole bunch worked up to fever pitch right now!” urged Billy.

“Are we to be detailed to take the fort by creeping up in the dark?” questioned Walter Osborne, plainly very much excited at the idea of such a thrilling episode. If successful, it would go down in history as a gallant deed, and perhaps engrave their names on the scroll of fame alongside that of Paul Revere, he thought.

“Remember that I’m a champion crawler!” admonished Monkey, who evidently did not believe in keeping his light hidden under a bushel and felt that no one could blow his horn so well as himself.

“The plans have not all been worked out yet,” Hugh told them, “but from certain things the captain let fall, I’m of the opinion the scouts will be set ashore at some secret cove with instructions to make their way up the beach unobserved until they can spy on the fort. After that I reckon it’s up to them to have a series of posts, so that they can send the news flashing down the line. The scout who is furthest south can relay it aboard where one of our number will be waiting to take the messages. In that way you see it will be all scout work from beginning to end. If only the fellows at the head can find out the weak points of the defense of the fort, the Naval Reserve men can capture the place as easy as you please.”

“It sounds like the boss scheme, Chief,” Billy admitted. “And please don’t pick me out to stay aboard while the rest of you have such a glorious time ashore, with chances of your being captured by the enemy and put in the darkest dungeon under the magazine of the fort.”

“You forget that the one who does have to stay will occupy a post of honor,” Hugh told him. “The receiving of the messages will depend on the able way he takes them, whether by heliograph or wigwag work. And besides, a scout always stands ready to do his duty, however disagreeable it may seem.”

“Oh! I reckon I’d look at it that way if I _had_ to,” admitted Billy, “but I only hope I’m lucky enough to be one of the shore party, that’s all.”

“Now, if only Arthur were along,” said Don Miller. “He might get up some kind of a scheme to work his wireless on this job. We’ve got the fixtures right on board here,” and as he spoke he glanced upward to where the delicate antennae of the naval outfit could be seen strung like spiders’ web tracery between the wireless masts of the _Vixen_.

“I don’t believe that would answer,” said Hugh. “There’d be too much chance of the enemy discovering our tall masts. The relay system is better all around. Besides it gives us scouts an opening to show what we can do. When the full plans are worked out I’ll be in a position to tell you more. By then, too, I’ll have decided just what part each scout is to have in the game. And now let’s go aft to see what’s the next thing on the program for to-day.”

“I’m a-hopin’ it’ll be that sweet bugle call,” sighed Billy as he rubbed a hand over his stomach. “Beats all how keen this salt air makes a fellow. Seems like I could begin one meal where the other left off. A little seasickness must be a sort of tonic calculated to build up poor appetites.”

At that remark the others broke out into a jeering laugh that indicated that they did not believe the speaker could be so afflicted.