Mr. Henry, if either of them were there, and after that
report to Captain Steele, and give him the second note. The young
officer was not at all pleased with his orders. He would have been much
better satisfied if Harry had sent him ashore to take command of the
storming party. He was afraid that if he left the yacht he would not see
her again until the pursuit of the pirates was ended. Captain Steele
might tell him to remain at the academy; or, if the principal sent out
re-enforcements, he might be ordered to take command of his company
(Packard was captain of company C), and that was something he did not
want to do. The military would join in the pursuit with alacrity, and
make the most strenuous exertions to effect the capture of the Crusoe
men, and thus rob the navy of the honors now almost within its grasp.

Since the advent of the Storm King, there had been a hot rivalry
existing between the military and naval portions of the academy, and
many a stormy debate had been held as to the relative merits of the two
branches of the service. The military officers said that the navy would
do well enough to convey transports of troops in time of war, and that
was all it was good for. The hard fighting was always done on the land,
and the victories that decided the war were gained by the soldiers.

"Sour grapes!" Harry would always reply. "If I were in your places, I
would not run down a thing, after trying my best to win it. You
landlubbers burned gallons of midnight oil in preparing for the naval
examination. I heard more than one among you say that he would rather be
a midshipman than major of the battalion; and now, because you failed to
gain any position on board the yacht, the navy is of no account. As for
hard fighting--why, fellows, you must have forgotten your history, if
you ever knew any thing about it. Take the case of the Bon Homme
Richard, in her fight with the Serapis! The action lasted three hours
and a half, and, during that time, one hundred and fifty, out of the
three hundred and twenty men who composed the crew of the Richard, were
killed and wounded. The loss on board the Serapis was about the same.
Nearly one-half the men on board the two vessels fell in the fight, and
that is something you never heard of in a modern land engagement. And,
more than that, the fire of the enemy was not the only thing Commodore
Jones had to contend with. The Richard was in flames from the beginning.
In the heat of the act