The Dreadnought Boys Aboard a Destroyer

“Hum; don’t know about the ‘brave sailor’ part of it,” smiled Ned Strong pleasantly, as the dark-skinned speaker halted him and his companion Herc Taylor in the shadow of the gr...

Charbonde found himself facing a rather undersized youth of about the age of the two who had just left him. The newcomer had furtive, rat-like eyes, and a sharp face filled with...

The _Beale_, like the other vessels of her class, of which the Navy Department has built such numbers in recent years, was a long, low, waspish-looking craft. She was painted da...

But even as Ned’s heart, which had stilled for an instant--or so he imagined--at the shout of alarm, began to beat again, the speed diminished. Waves began to hammer viciously a...

The word came to Ned the next day as he lay, feeling rather dizzy and light-headed, in his hammock. There is no sick bay on a destroyer, and so special leave had been granted hi...

The deck of the derelict presented as dismal a scene as had her hulk. The seams gaped whitely, and the litter of broken spars and mildewed canvas showed only too plainly through...

But of their host’s interest in the papers the little group had no inkling. They contentedly sipped their sodas--which, to tell the truth, despite their provider’s recommendatio...

However, to the disappointment of both Dreadnought Boys, the _Beale_ weighed anchor that evening and stood off down the coast to another port--Hermillo. There were several Ameri...

The voice of Lieutenant Timmons held a tone of deep interest as he gazed at the three blue-jackets standing bareheaded before him in his cabin. At Ned’s request Stanley and Herc...

Closer and closer came the sharp, insistent bark of the gasoline motor. Presently a dark shadow glided by at about six boat-lengths from the consul’s launch, lying crouched, as...

Ned stuck grittily to his post, although at any moment one of the bullets from the firing party ashore might have terminated his career. But presently, to his delight, the fire...

In their tourist costumes the four “scouts,” for such they now were, walked rapidly through the town, attracting no more attention than that bestowed on them by hordes of beggar...

If it had depended on Ned to speak at that instant the fate of the party would have been sealed then and there. His tongue seemed to stick to the roof of his mouth. He regarded...

Through the jeering camp the American prisoners were marched. They had, of course, been searched and their revolvers confiscated. How fortunate, Ned thought it then, that he had...

Hardly had he spoken before the door of their dungeon was thrown open, and a shaft of blinding sunlight streamed in. The prisoners all rose to their feet as there entered the sq...

Explosion followed explosion now. Bugle calls resounded amid the noise of falling buildings. The inmates of the prison could hear the clash of accouterments as troops raced by....

As the boat sank under them, Ned struck out for the _General Barrill_. He was a strong, swift swimmer, and almost as much at home in the water as on land or the deck of a battle...

The chart showed Santa Anna to be a harbor not unlike in formation that of Boca del Sierras. Instead of the town lying on a flat, however, it actually climbed up the sides of th...

It was Ned who asked the question, his hand on the engine-room telegraph; for at the minute the _Calvo_ had issued her request--or rather order, backed up as it was by the repor...

The crew, appalled by the steel hail which now began to pour from the sides of the _Calvo_, became so demoralized at the crisis that heroic measures were necessary. Stanley and...

As if some subtle dissolvent chemical had been suddenly applied to them, the stern works of the _Bolivar_ appeared to melt away as the torpedo struck her. For an instant she flo...

A dense belt of dark-leaved bananas separated the villa from the highway, along which they had been riding. Without bothering to find a pathway, the Americans swung their horses...

But their apprehension was speedily relieved. Ned it was who first sighted, carried far back in the ranks of the approaching horsemen, the red, white and blue flag of the republ...

Hardly daring to draw a breath, and with his heart pounding against his ribs as if it would break them, Ned waited. It was overpoweringly hot in the brush. The sweat dribbled fr...

For an hour or more the consul and the naval officer sat spellbound as the four--for they each had a part to tell--related their adventures since they left the destroyer.

The next day they had leave ashore, and spent it in walking about the city, recalling the eventful things that had happened to them in its vicinity. Suddenly Ned was almost suff...