Young Glory and the Spanish cruiser : $b or, a brave fight against oddsMott, Walter Fenton
History
Young Glory and the Spanish cruiser : $b or, a brave fight against odds
Mott, Walter Fenton
Seafaring life -- Juvenile fiction; Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Juvenile fiction; War stories
In all directions they turned and fled, the sailors in their eagerness
dashing after them and cutting them down. The scene of the fight was a
ghastly sight now. All around lay the dead and dying, and every minute
added fresh victims to the list.
But now the men were recalled from the pursuit of the flying enemy to
resume the main purpose for which they had landed. This was to attack
and capture the fort and silence the guns.
Up the steep ascent they toiled, protected from harm by the trees which
covered the slope. As they drew nearer the batteries, they saw that an
almost impossible task was before them.
The walls of the fort were steep and high. The sailors had no scaling
ladder with them. How, then, could they hope to make a successful
attack?
This was the problem that confronted Lieut. Tyler.
"Faith, we can jump it!" cried Dan.
"Then you're wasting your time in the navy if that's so, Dan," laughed
Young Glory. "A man who can clear fifteen feet ought to go in for
athletics."
There was no holding the men back.
Furiously they rushed forward, leaving the shelter of the trees to
assail the fort.
Bang, bang!
The Spaniards had them at their mercy now. They fired from the rampart
at the helpless men below.
"Back!" shouted Lieutenant Tyler. "Back, I say! This is folly!"
It needed no more talking to show this. Already in this brief attack the
men had sustained a heavier loss than in all the fighting of the day.
"Where's Young Glory?" was the cry.
There was a look of dismay on everyone's face as they glanced round and
saw that he was missing.
"The boy gone!" cried Dan, frantically. "Arrah, then, it's meself's
goin' too!"
And breaking away from those who tried to hold him, Dan fairly flew till
he came to the spot beneath the fort where his comrades had just fallen.
"Not there!" he cried. "It's a prisoner he is! An' shure, how could they
take him prisoner? It's not one of them Spaniards has ventured out. An',
begorra, he wouldn't be afther takin' himself prisoner!"
Dismissing this last idea as unreasonable, Dan, who had miraculously
escaped the enemy's bullets, ran back to his comrades.
"It's the last we've seen of him."
Now, where was Young Glory?
In the attack that had been made on the fort the boy had been at the
extreme right--that is, the point of view nearest the sea. Whilst his
comrades were aimlessly throwing themselves against the walls of the
fort, Young Glory was otherwise engaged.
He had seen a figure emerge from the fort and glide amongst the trees at
some distance away. Quick as lightning Young Glory did the same. He
stole along towards the spot where the Spaniard had secreted himself,
and there was a look on the boy's face that spoke volumes.
"It is he!" he muttered. "I only saw him for an instant, but it's a face
I never forgot."
Bang! A man sprang forth, pistol in hand, and fired.
As he did so he laughed defiantly.
"Good-by, Young Glory!"
"You villain, I am not dead yet, as you shall see, Jose Castro!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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