Part 12 (1/2)

”On the battles.h.i.+p?” repeated Frank, as he sealed the missive. ”Well, I shouldn't be surprised if it were very soon now.”

”Really?” cried Ned in incredulous delight. ”How do you know?”

”Oh, well, rumors have been going around that some of the more advanced of us would be given our chance soon.”

”And do they count us advanced?”

”So I understand. We've worked hard enough, haven't we?”

”We sure have! But that doesn't always count.”

”Well, I think we are slated for the _Georgetown_ all right,” Frank said.

”What! That magnificent new battles.h.i.+p?” cried Ned, his eyes sparkling with antic.i.p.ation.

”That's the one, and it's the very last word in battles.h.i.+ps,” Frank went on.

This talk took place about four months after the arrival of our heroes at the training station. Those four months were so crowded with work, play, incidents, and a few accidents of minor character, so full of learning new things, that the whole book could be devoted to what happened when Ned and Frank were learning to be sailors. But there are other matters to tell of, so only a brief idea of what took place will be given. Perhaps another volume will tell more fully of life at Norfolk.

Instruction for the two boys of the battles.h.i.+p, as well as for their mates, went on constantly, and they fairly absorbed knowledge of nautical matters, seemingly taking it in through their skin, as well as through their eyes and ears.

In the big drill hall, where they were given setting-up exercises, as well as taught the manual of arms and how to march in certain formations, one could not help learning. On the walls were flags from every nation, and all sorts of signal flags. For a sailor must learn to talk by means of signals-lights at night, and flags or semaph.o.r.e arms by day. So the flags were hung on the walls of the drill hall that the boys might have them before their eyes continually. There was also a big compa.s.s, with its thirty-two ”points,” painted on one wall, thus there was no excuse for a lad's not knowing how to box it; which means to reel off the different directions.

Some of the recruits had to be taught to swim, for this is one of the first things insisted on by those in charge of making a man-o'-warsman.

But Ned and Frank were masters of this aquatic art, and their ability was soon recognized. In fact they were even detailed to help show others how to get about in the water.

And in the matter of boats, too, our heroes had the advantage over many of their mates. For their years spent on Great South Bay proved of great advantage to them, though the boats in which the drills were given at Norfolk were heavy cutters and large motor-driven skiffs, and were not so easy to maneuver as had been the _Ellen_.

”Do you wish you were back at Ipswhich again?” asked Ned of his brother one day, after a long boat drill.

”No, to tell you the truth, I think this life just suits us. Of course, I did love the old home, and I don't dare think about poor Uncle Phil,”

said Frank, ”but this is really the life for us.”

”You're right,” declared his brother. And if ever lads were destined for the navy Frank and Ned were.

In the model room, and in the rigging loft, the apprentice seamen, the t.i.tle borne by Frank and Ned, were taught how to coil down gear, make knots and splices, as well as. .h.i.tches, and how to manage sails. For though a battles.h.i.+p only moves by steam, there are small boats that have canvas as a motive power, and enough of real sailor knowledge is required to make it necessary that instruction be given.

In spite of his rather mean character and his bullying ways, Hank Dell showed that he knew a great deal more than the average recruit about ropes. He could tie any sort of knot.

”How'd you learn it?” asked Frank, for though he and Ned did not like the boy, they were honest enough to admire his ability.

”A sailor that lived near me showed me how,” was the answer. ”He put me in the notion of coming here. But if I'd known how hard it was I wouldn't have enlisted.”

Hank was lazy and s.h.i.+ftless in many ways, but he had to keep up to the mark, though this he did not like.

In due time Frank and Ned were a.s.signed to the same battalion, and in that they went through many drills, all being designed to give the lads needed instruction. They had to learn how to send and receive messages by means of wig-wag flags, by the semaph.o.r.e, which is something like a railway signal arm, and they also learned the alphabet, and to send and receive messages by means of colored lights at night.