ficers had a hearty welcome.

It was a different sort of welcome she now got. The _Brooklyn_ and the
_Oregon_ were after her and her last day had come. So hot was the fire
that her men were driven from their guns and flames began to appear.

Then she, too, was run ashore and her flag was hauled down. It was just
an hour after the chase began and she had gone twenty miles down the
coast. Now she lay blazing redly on the shallow shore and in the night
she blew up. It was a terrible business, the ruin of those three fine
vessels.

There was one more Spanish ship, the _Cristobal Colon_. (This is the
Spanish for Christopher Columbus.) She was the fastest of them all, and
for a time it looked as if Spain might save one of her ships.

But there were bloodhounds on her track, the _Brooklyn_, six miles
behind, and the _Oregon_, more than seven miles away.

Swiftly onward fled the deer, and swiftly onward followed the
war-hounds. Mile by mile they gained on the chase. About one o'clock,
when she was four miles away, the _Oregon_ sent a huge shell whizzing
from one of her great 13-inch guns. It struck the water just behind the
_Colon_; but another that followed struck the water ahead.

Then the _Brooklyn_ tried her eight-inch guns, and sent a shell through
the _Colon's_ side, above her belt of steel. For twenty minutes this
was kept up. The _Colon_ was being served like her consorts. At the end
of that time her flag was pulled down and the last of the Spanish ships
ran ashore. She had made a flight for life of nearly fifty miles.

This, you see, is not the story of a sea-fight; it is the story of a
sea-chase. Much has been said about who won the honor at Santiago, but I
think any of you could tell that in a few words. It was the men who ran
the engines and who aimed the guns that won the game. The commanders did
nothing but run after the runaway Spaniards, and there is no great honor
in that. What else was there for them to do? They could not run the
other way.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired.

Page 45, "Quileron" changed to "Quiberon" (fleet at Quiberon Bay)

Page 119, "one" changed to "on" (set it on fire)

Page 123, "scimetar" changed to "scimitar" (scimitar and aimed a)

Page 132, "breadth" changed to "breath" (hardly a breath)

Page 148, "a" changed to "to" (how to handle)

Page 172, "know" changed to "knew" (Lawrence never knew)

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