"Last night--"

"Yes."

"Last night a volunteer crew--"

"Hurry up, will you?"

"Last night, or rather early this morning, a volunteer crew, under the
command of a naval constructor named Hobson, took the collier 'Merrimac'
into the mouth of the harbor and--"

"That old tub?" interrupted a marine who had served in the regular navy,
incredulously. "Why, she's nothing but a hulk. She hasn't a gun or--"

"She didn't go in to fight," said "Hay." "They were to block up the
channel with her."

"To block up the channel?"

"Yes. Cervera and his fleet are in the harbor, you know, and the scheme
was to keep them from coming out."

"Did they succeed?" chorused the whole group of eager listeners.

"Yes, but----"

The conclusion of "Hay's" sentence was drowned in a wild whoop of joy, a
whoop that brought a number of other "Yankees" to the spot, and also a
gesture of remonstrance from the executive officer on the bridge.