ot for the presence of ladies, I would call you to account
for that remark," muttered Dodley. "As it is, I shall not forget it.
Ladies, I have the honor to wish you a very good-morning."

With this the speaker, who had not dismounted, turned his horse's head
and rode away.

CHAPTER II

WAR IS DECLARED

Never was the temper and patience of the American people more sorely
tried than by the two months of waiting and suspense that followed the
destruction of their splendid battle-ship. The _Maine_ had entered
Havana Harbor on a friendly visit, been assigned to a mooring, which
was afterwards changed by the Spanish authorities, and three weeks
later, without a suspicion of danger having been aroused or a note of
warning sounded, she was destroyed as though by a thunder-bolt. It was
nearly ten o'clock on the night of Tuesday, February 15th. Taps had
sounded and the crew were asleep in their hammocks, when, by a terrific
explosion, two hundred and fifty-eight men and two officers were hurled
into eternity, sixty more were wounded, and the superb battle-ship was
reduced to a mass of shapeless wreckage.

It was firmly believed throughout the United States that this appalling
disaster was caused by a submarine mine, deliberately placed near the
mooring buoy to which the _Maine_ had been moved, to be exploded at a
favorable opportunity by Spanish hands.

The Spaniards, on the other side, claimed and strenuously maintained
that the only explosion was that of the ship's own magazines, declaring
in support of this theory that discipline on all American men-of-war
was so lax as to invite such a catastrophe at any moment.

To investigate, and settle if possible, this vital question, a Court of
Inquiry, composed of four prominent naval officers, was appointed.
They proceeded to Havana, took volumes of testimony, and, after six
weeks of most searching investigation, made a report to the effect that
the _Maine_ was destroyed by two distinct explosions, the first of
which was that of a mine located beneath her, and causing a second
explosion--of her own magazines--by concussion.

During these six weeks the country was in a ferment. For three years
war had raged in Cuba, where the natives were striving to throw off the
intolerable burden of Spanish oppression and cruelty. In all that time
the sympathies of America were with the struggling Cubans; and from
every State of the Union demands for intervention in their behalf