Gerald, in his uniform of lieutenant in His Majesty's fleet, stepped forward to receive the distinguished officer, and informed him of the death of Captain Brookes and of his written instructions to hand over the _Olive Branch_ formally to the British Government. "I am not ashamed to confess," remarked Admiral Hobbes to Gerald as they stood in the presence of the great captain, "that but for the assistance of the _Olive Branch_ our position would have been hopeless. Now, thanks to Captain Brookes, all danger is at an end, and England still remains Mistress of the Seas. More than that, she will be incontestably supreme for all time. It's a sharp lesson, but an effectual one. All honour to the man who fulfilled his mission, and by one great action made further war impossible." And standing rigidly at the salute, the veteran admiral paid his homage to the Sea Monarch. THE END. [Transcriber's Notes: "THE CAPTAIN, A MAGAZINE FOR BOYS & 'OLD BOYS.'" was a monthly magazine for young boys. It contained articles about how to make things yourself, about schools, photography, and short stories by different authors. The magazines were also published collectively as half-year volumes. In 1911 volume XXV appeared and it included this story by Percy F. Westerman. This story was published the next year (1912) by Adam & Charles Black, as a novel. The 1911 edition contains a number of misprints. The following misprints have been corrected: [from beneath, his feet.] -> [from beneath his feet.] [I wil hasten to] -> [I will hasten to] ["I am begining to] -> ["I am beginning to] Beneath an illustration the following text was found: [the tips of the twin propellors] -> [the tips of the twin propellers] [the companion Selkirk,] -> [the companion, Selkirk,] [in the Altantic] -> [in the Atlantic] Several words occur with different notation. It could not be established which spelling is correct, so no corrections were made for: [charthouse]/[chart-house] [bos'n]/[bos'un]/[bo's'un] [siren]/[syren] A reversal was detected (but not corrected) in the following fragment: ["destroyed" was substituted for that signifying "escaped."] Following the story-line, the author probably meant to write: ["escaped" was substituted for that signifying "destroyed."] The plain text file uses underscores to indicate italic text and asterixes to indicate bold. A contents-list and an illustrations-list have been added for the convenience of the reader. ]