y to receive
the fire of the advancing squadron. The flag-ship _Reina Christina_ also
was under way.

"Prepare for general action! Steam at eight-knot speed!" were the signals
which floated from the _Olympia_ as she led the fleet in, keeping well
toward the shore opposite the city.

The American fleet was yet five miles distant, when from the arsenal came
a flame and report; but the missile was not to be seen. Another shot from
Cavite, and then was strung aloft on the _Olympia_ a line of tiny flags,
telling by the code what was to be the American battle-cry: "Remember the
_Maine_," and from the throat of every man on the incoming ships went up a
shout of defiance and exultation that the moment was near at hand when the
dastardly deed done in the harbour of Havana might be avenged.

Steaming steadily onward were the huge vessels, dropping astern and beyond
range the transports as they passed opposite Cavite Point, until, having
gained such a distance above the city as permitted of an evolution, the
fleet swung swiftly around until it held a course parallel with the
westernmost shore, and distant from it mayhap six thousand yards.

Every nerve was strained to its utmost tension; each man took a mental
grip upon himself, believing that he stood face to face with death; but no
cheek paled; no hand trembled save it might have been from excitement.

The ships were coming down on their fighting course when a shell from one
of the shore-batteries burst over the _Olympia_; the guns from the fort
and from the water-batteries vomited jets of flame and screaming missiles
with thunderous reports; every man on the American fleet save one believed
the moment had come when they should act their part in the battle which
had been begun by the enemy; but up went the signal:

"Hold your fire until close in."

Had the American fleet opened fire then, the city of Manila would have
been laid in ashes and thousands of non-combatants slain.

The _Olympia_ was yet two miles from Cavite when, directly in front of the
_Baltimore_, a huge shaft of water shot high into the air, and with a
heavy booming that drowned the reports of the Spanish guns.

"The torpedoes!" some one on the _Olympia_ said, in a low tone, with an
indrawing of the breath; but it was as if Dewey did not hear. With
Farragut in Mobile Bay he had seen the effects of such engines of
destruction, and, like Farragut, he gave little heed to that which might
in a single instant