ng. It was this: `if
signals can't be seen, no captain can do wrong if he places his ship
alongside an enemy.' Of coorse we all knew that he meant to win that
battle; but, for the matter of that, every soul in the fleet, from the
admiral to the smallest powder-monkey, meant--"

"Boasting not allowed," said Dan McCoy, displaying his fine teeth from
ear to ear.

The seaman looked at him with a heavy frown.

"You young slip of a pump-handle, what d'ye mean?"

"The king's orders," said Dan, pointing to Adams, while the rest of the
Pitcairners seemed awestruck by his presumption.

The frown slowly left the visage of Jack Brace. He shut his eyes,
smiled benignly, and delivered a series of heavy puffs from the
starboard side of his mouth.

Then a little squeak that had been bottled up in the nose of Otaheitan
Sally forced a vent, and the whole party burst into hilarious laughter.

"Just so," resumed Brace, when they had recovered, "that is exactly what
we did in the mizzen-top o' the _Victory_ when we made out the signal,
only we stuck a cheer on to the end o' the laugh. After that came
another signal, just as we were about to go into action, `England
expects that every man will this day do his duty.' The effect of that
signal was just treemendious, _I_ tell you.

"I noticed at this time that some of Nelson's officers were botherin'
him,--tryin' to persuade him, so to speak, to do somethin' he didn't
want to. I afterwards found out that they were tryin' to persuade him
not to wear his orders, but he wouldn't listen to 'em. Then they tried
to convince him it would be wise for him to keep out of action as long
as possible. He seemed to give in to this, for he immediately signalled
the _Temeraire_ and _Leviathan_, which were abreast of us, to pass
ahead; but in _my_ opinion this was nothin' more than a sly joke of the
Admiral, for he kept carrying on all sail on the _Victory_, so that it
wasn't possible for these ships to obey the order.

"We made the attack in two lines. The _Victory_ led the weather-line of
fourteen ships, and Collingwood, in the _Royal Sovereign_, led the
lee-line of thirteen ships.

"As we bore down, the enemy opened the ball. We held our breath, for,
as no doubt you know, messmate, just before the beginnin' of a fight,
when a man is standin' still an' doin' nothin', he's got time to think;
an' he _does_ think, too, in a way, mayhap, that he's not much used to
think."

"That's true, Ja