After supper that night, while the men were still discussing poor Hudgins' mishap, the boatswain's mate--the same one who had received them on board--hastened up to Ned and Herc as they lay on the fore deck, gazing at the soft tropic stars, and announced: "It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Hudgins was signalman of the target officer's wherry. You boys go out in his place to-morrow." CHAPTER XX. HERC--A LIVING TARGET. To the keen disappointment of the boys, however, they found out the next day that they were not, as they had anticipated, to go together in the target officer's "wherry," as the small boat he used was called. Ned was to accompany the officer--a young ensign named Rousseau--while Herc was to take his place as acting signalman in one of the two big whale boats that were detailed to attend to the targets. The man who ordinarily undertook this duty being assigned to the signal post in the "flying bridge" of the flagship. Immediately after breakfast, the _Manhattan_, which was to have sole charge of the target-placing, lowered the three boats and one of her "steamers." The targets were set up on the floats already provided for them before the call for the first meal of the day sounded. These targets were huge sheets of canvas twenty feet high and twenty-five feet broad, which were to be towed to a distance of a mile and a half from the battle-practice ground and anchored. Each was marked into squares by thin lines, with a big square of black in the center for a bull's-eye. There were ten of them, and they were to be ranged in a line. The first test to be applied was firing by the flagship from anchorage. This was more to get the range than anything else. The real practice would come later, when the ships in column steamed past the targets, firing one after the other at designated marks. This was to be the real test of the fleet's gunnery, and one in which the men of the _Idaho_ felt confident they would again shine preëminent. The _Manhattan's_ gun crews, on the contrary, felt just as sure of capturing the scarlet "meat ball," the trophy of the fleet. The _Manhattan's_ steamer lay, with a full head of power, alongside the man-o'-war as Ned and Herc, with their signal flags, emerged from their quarters forward with the rest of the men assigned to placing the targets. The targets, as has been said, had already been set in place on the big collapsible scows which had been towed out from the shore during the night. Nothing remained but to tow them out and place them. The range would then be picked up as soon as Ned wig-wagged the ensign's signal to the flagship that all was ready. For this purpose, the commanders of the different vessels had been summoned by signal to appear on the _Connecticut_ that morning and take part in a "counsel of war" in the rear-admiral's cabin.