"Fire's out!" yelled somebody; but as, by this time, they were almost alongside the towering, slate-colored sides of the _Manhattan_, a quick cry of "Hush!" ran through the boat, and the Dreadnought Boys, for the present, escaped further trials of their tempers. "Aren't we going to board the ship?" asked Herc, as the launch approached the _Manhattan_, which was swung up-stream, with the tide. "Of course," replied Ned. Both lads spoke in an undertone, so as not to run the risk of incurring a rebuke or the bringing down of further teasing on their heads. "But there is a gangway hanging over the side right there," objected Herc, pointing to a substantial stairway leading from the stern structure of the big war vessel to the water's edge. "Why, you lubber," laughed Ned, "that's the officer's landing place. We are not allowed to land on the starboard side. We jackies have to go round to the port side of the ship." "Humph!" remarked Herc, in whose mind a very distinct feeling that he should not like the navy was beginning to take shape. In a few minutes the launch drew up at the officer's gangway, and the young midshipman leaped in an agile manner onto it. The launch then continued round the steep bow of the _Manhattan_, which towered like a mighty cliff of gray steel above the boys' heads. It steamed on till it arrived beneath a number of "Jacob's ladders" dangling from booms projecting several feet outward from the vessel's side. "How on earth do we get aboard?" said Herc. "Climb up those ladders," rejoined Ned. "What, those swinging things?" "That's right." "What then?" "Then we run along those booms till we are on board the ship." "No, thank you." Herc looked apprehensively at the swinging ladders up which the jackies from the first boat were already beginning to swarm like monkeys, nimbly scampering along the booms when they reached the top. They steadied themselves on the lofty perches by light hand-lines rigged for the purpose. "What do you mean? Surely you are not getting scared?" "No, not scared," replied Herc. "But what's a fellow want to come into the navy for if he can make a living walking a tight rope?" "Come on, you two rookies!" shouted a voice at this moment. "Let's see how you can manage a Jacob's ladder." There was a taunting note in the words that made Ned wheel angrily. He saw facing him, with an ugly leer on his countenance, the hulking-looking man, whose arm stripes denoted that he was serving his second enlistment, with whom Herc had already had the recorded passage-at-arms. Then and there Ned felt that this fellow and himself were not destined to make good shipmates. He also determined, however, not to let any of the jackies see that there was an instant's hesitation in his mind about taking the perilous-looking climb. "Come on, Herc," he cried, as he made a spring for the ladder.