Ensign Merrill — page 138: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

i / ‘ F * ie f . . ° tt, a sd : ' ‘ : s 2 . : ae Py al ° this AD epee a eothy aw es . oie CHAPTER XXIV. - THE BADGER BREAKS DOWN. GAGE stared for a moment in surprise, and then turned quickly to signal the Badger, but she had passed out of sight behind the cliff. Scrambling down from _ THE | BADGER BREAKS DOWN. —«.188— the lookout mast he hurried to the beach by way of the ‘ secret passage, taking the two men with him that had remained there to steady the tree-trunk. It was but the work of a moment to embark the party, and both boats were soon en route for the steamer, which, by that time, had reached a point only a half- mile away. Irom his station on the bridge Mark saw the middy standing erect in the stern of the whaleboat, waving his hand toward T’sin Chu. He knew from that something had occurred, but still he was hardly prepared for the information Ned gave him on board- ing the cruiser. ‘‘There are two large junks over there, Mark, and they are moving out to join the other one,’’ reported the latter, out of breath from his hurry. ‘‘I counted four masts, and lofty ones too.”’ ‘*How far beyond the Point were they?’’. | ‘‘Not overa thousand yards. They ought to come in sight at any moment.’’ Merrill signaled full speed on the engine-room indi- eator and directed the man at the wheel to steer straight down the middie of the channel. He then ordered the boatswain to call all hands to general quar- ters and requested the middy and Watson to get their divisions in readiness as speedily as possible. *‘Bring up fifty rounds apiece for each gun, half shell and the rest solid shot. Don’t fire until I give the Eomicbooks:.co