He trusted in his father's word, and be-lieved
that when the right time came he would tell him to go.
He saw the men leap into the boat. He heard them call to him to come.
He shook his head.
"When father bids me, I will go," he said.
And now the flames were leaping up the masts. The sails were all
ablaze. The fire blew hot upon his cheek. It scorched his hair. It was
before him, behind him, all around him.
"O father!" he cried, "may I not go now? The men have all left the
ship. Is it not time that we too should leave it?"
He did not know that his father was lying in the burning cabin below,
that a cannon ball had struck him dead at the very be-gin-ning of the
fight. He listened to hear his answer.
"Speak louder, father!" he cried. "I cannot hear what you say."
Above the roaring of the flames, above the crashing of the falling
spars, above the booming of the guns, he fancied that his father's
voice came faintly to him through the scorching air.
"I am here, father! Speak once again!" he gasped.
But what is that?
A great flash of light fills the air; clouds of smoke shoot quickly
upward to the sky; and--
"Boom!"
Oh, what a ter-rif-ic sound! Louder than thunder, louder than the roar
of all the guns! The air quivers; the sea itself trembles; the sky is
black.
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