something. What I have
done, what I shall do, dating from that time, I stand on. Before that
my battles were fought for me. After that the fight was my own. And I
have never regretted one bit of it; nor am I ashamed of one single
minute from the time I slung hawsers on the _Hydrographer_ until I
commanded the _Fledgling_. And I shall always rejoice, and my friends
must rejoice, in that part of the fight, and never seek to hide a
single incident. It's all behind now, but it was worth while. And a
man must go on--"

"Yes, I know," replied the girl, softly. She turned her face from the
silvery path on the water.

"And you are not going to stop fighting. Oh, you will not stop! You
will go on and on. Men like you never stand still. I know it is the
truth. What difference can your past life make to your friends? It is
never what a man was or might have been that counts, or what he may be;
it is what he is."

And then she turned and left him.

One evening as the dark came creeping over the purple waters, the
_Tampico_ cluttered up to the mouth of the harbor of San Blanco City.
Captain Merrithew and Mr. Howland stood on the bridge, while Virginia
and most of her guests were assembled at the rail, all eyes straining
shoreward. A rattle of musketry tore through the evening air--a
muzzle-loading cannon spoke grouchily; then all was still. A sailboat
was drifting out to sea and the fishermen, being hailed, informed those
on the steamship that revolutionists were pounding at the city walls
and pounding hard, but thus far without avail. The uprising, as usual,
they said, had its inception in the fastnesses of Monte-Cristi and,
spreading through the country, had brought up with a bang against the
walls of the city itself.

Mr. Howland was seriously perturbed.

"We must get in quickly and land our guns, Captain," he said. "It's
too bad we have this party with us. However, you must not consider
their comfort. If you land this cargo of ordnance, we can break the
revolution easily and pleasantly."

He glanced at the Blancan navy--two gunboats, formerly pleasure yachts,
and a "battleship," once a steam-lighter--which lay at strategic
intervals across the harbor mouth and moved impatiently.

"The scoundrels!" he ejaculated. "Why don't they shell those
insurgents? They could end this promptly if they wished to. I shall
have something pleasant to say to them and to Senor Gaspard of the
Marine when I see him.