"I caught a few words, sir. I cannot speak Spanish myself." Commodore Schley mused for a moment. "That is all," he said, addressing Captain Cook. "The boy has certainly had some remarkable adventures. He is better off than poor Lieutenant Hobson." "That's true," responded the commander of the _Brooklyn_. He turned to Walter. "You can go, Russell; if we want you again, we will send for you." "Yes, sir," was the youth's reply, and, saluting, he turned and left the cabin. The interview had been a very formal one, but he was proud to think that he had come into personal contact with his gallant captain and his equally gallant commodore. CHAPTER XXV THE BOMBARDMENT OF THE SANTIAGO BATTERIES When Walter returned to his friends he was immediately surrounded and asked what had happened in the cabin. "Did the commodore slap you on the back and call you a bully boy?" queried Si. "Well, hardly," answered Walter, with a quiet smile. "They plied me with questions and said I had had some remarkable adventures; that's all." "Didn't praise you?" queried Caleb. "No." "Didn't rush up and shake hands even?" put in Paul. "Not at all. I saluted and toed the mark, and kept toeing it until I left." At this Paul's face fell. "Why, I thought you would be right in it, Walter," he said. "I guess you've been reading some dime and half-dime colored-cover novels, Paul. I imagine that is the way they do in such books." "That's it. Why, I've got a story about 'Dewey's Boy Bodyguard.' The hero in that overheard a plot against Dewey, and Dewey clasped him to his breast and made him a captain of marines." "Indeed! And you believe such a yarn?" "Dewey couldn't make the boy a captain of marines, not if he was an admiral twice over," put in Caleb. "Those yarns are pure trash. Paul, you had better study some good book on gunnery, and try to become a gun captain." "I thought the story was slightly overdrawn," said Paul, growing red in the face. "There is another about the 'Boy Hero of Havana,' who saves General Lee's life at the time the Americans are getting out of Havana. I suppose that is untrue, too." "To be sure, Paul. General Lee was in no great danger at that time. Of course some of the sensational papers had to make the most of it, and they reported that he was travelling around with a six-shooter in his pocket, and a detective dogging his footsteps. As a matter of fact he walked around with nothing but a white cotton umbrella, to keep the sun off." "I'll burn the whole batch of colored stuff up," cried the apprentice; and he did, at the big galley fire. No one on board ever caught him reading dime and half-dime novels again.