Having telegraphed his mother as requested, Mark Merrill made his way
back to the academy.
If he had sought for an opportunity to show his popularity it could not
have come to him any better, for at the telegraph office the operator
who read his message said, pleasantly:
“Permit me to congratulate you, Mr. Merrill, upon your success.”
The sergeant, at the entrance to the academy grounds also had a polite
and pleasant congratulation for him, as did several of the officer’s
wives whom he met, while a group of cadets, as he went by, gave him a
salute and a hurrah.
Returning to his room he was greeted with a shout of delight from Bemis
Perry.
“Old man, you are a lucky dog! Behold!”
Upon the table before him lay a handsome watch and chain.
Upon one side of the watch was engraved a yacht scudding along in a
storm, and at her helm a bareheaded, barefooted boy.
The engraving was certainly most artistically done, while beneath were
the words:
“A BOY PILOT OUR ONLY HOPE.”
Upon the other side of the watch was engraved the following:
“PRESENTED TO
CADET MIDSHIPMAN MARK MERRILL,
as a souvenir of his heroism in risking his own life to
save others from death.”
Below was the date of the saving of the yacht Midshipman, and the name
of the Secretary of the Navy.
“There’s something for your grandchildren to be proud of, Merrill,”
cried Bemis Perry.
“Yes, I am proud of it myself; but it is more than I deserve, Perry,
as I did not risk my life, you know, for I could have swam back to
the shore if I found I could not have reached the yacht, and I got my
reward in my appointment here; but here is a card,” and Mark read aloud:
“Since your entrance to the Naval Academy my eye has been upon you, my
young friend, and I congratulate you upon your success, and beg your
acceptance of the accompanying as a token of my appreciation of the
debt of gratitude I owe you.”
“Most neatly expressed, Merrill; but now look here,” and Perry took
from the box a superb, gold-mounted sea-glass.
“How beautiful!” exclaimed Mark, as he had just put his watch and chain
in place.
“The commodore has got his eye on you, too, Merrill,” said Perry, with
a laugh, as he pointed to what was engraved on the glasses:
“PRESENTED AS A TRIBUTE TO TRUE COURAGE
TO
CADET MIDSHIPMAN MARK MERRILL,
FROM
DAVID LUCIEN, COMMODORE U. S. NAVY.”
Mark Merrill was deeply moved by these expressions of gratitude and
good will from such men as were the donors of the magnificent gifts to
him.
He walked to the window of his room, glass in hand, and stood gazing
listlessly out upon the scene before him.
It was no dream, as he had often feared, for before him was the ocular
demonstration of the fact that he was a naval cadet in the service of
his country.
His thoughts went back to little more than a year, when in his little
surf-skiff he was carrying the mail through sunshine and storm along
the rugged coast.
Just then Scott Clemmons passed before him, and he recalled the change
since that meeting at B----, when his toy ship had been broken.
Then Clemmons, the son of a rich man, coming of a family of
aristocrats, had seemed to tower far above him.
But to-day how different, for Clemmons was his vanquished rival.
Then he was, as his rival had so often said, a poor fisher lad, unknown
to all except the few who admired his pluck as a young sailor.
Now he stood here a victor, honored by his commanders and comrades, the
recipient of costly gifts from the head of the navy, and one high in
rank.
Then, little over a year before he was poor, his mother with scarcely
the money to buy medicine, and now she had sent him money and had
plenty remaining--what seemed a small fortune to her and to him, for
he was economical, though not mean, and not a dollar of his pay had he
squandered.
The past was behind him, the future opened brightly before him.
Three more years[1] and he would win his fight for fame, if all went
well.
He had vowed to win, and that vow must be kept, come what might,
against all odds.
“Only death shall conquer me!” broke sternly from his lips, as the
midshipman finished his reverie and turned again toward his roommate,
whose very presence he had forgotten.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] Before the making of the term six years at the Naval Academy. The
AUTHOR.