ed
this factor to the problem.

"And it was curious about Brainard, the most useless and utterly
incompetent man ever graduated. He was so near-sighted that he couldn't
see the end of his nose without glasses; but it was he that took the
ship in, with the rest of us eating with our fingers and asking our way
to the sick-bay."

"And Brainard wore his glasses that night?'" asked Metcalf.

"Yes; he couldn't see without them. It reminds me of Nydia, the blind
girl who piloted a bunch out of Pompeii because she was used to the
darkness. Still, Brainard is hardly a parallel."

"Were his glasses the ordinary kind, or pebbles?"

"Don't know. Which are the cheapest? That's the kind."

"The ordinary kind."

"Well, he had the ordinary kind--like himself. And he'll get special
promotion. Oh, Lord! He'll be jumped up a dozen numbers."

"Well," said Metcalf, mysteriously, "perhaps not. Just wait."

Metcalf kept his counsel, and in two weeks there came Japan's
declaration of war in a short curt note to the Powers at Washington.
Next day the papers burned with news, cabled _via_ St. Petersburg and
London, of the sailing of the Japanese fleet from its home station, but
for where was not given--in all probability either the Philippines or
the Hawaiian Islands. But when, next day, a torpedo-boat came into San
Francisco in command of the cook, with his mess-boy at the wheel,
conservatism went to the dogs, and bounties were offered for enlistment
at the various navy-yards, while commissions were made out as fast as
they could be signed, and given to any applicant who could even pretend
to a knowledge of yachts. And Surgeon George Metcalf, with the rank of
junior lieutenant, was ordered to the torpedo-boat above mentioned, and
with him as executive officer a young graduate of the academy, Ensign
Smith, who with the enthusiasm and courage of youth combined the
mediocrity of inexperience and the full share of the service prejudice
against civilians.

This prejudice remained in full force, unmodified by the desperate
situation of the country; and the unstricken young officers filling
subordinate positions on the big craft, while congratulating him, openly
denied his moral right to a command that others had earned a better
right to by remaining in the service; and the old jokes, jibes, and
satirical references to syringes and sticking-plaster whirled about his
head as he went to and fro, fitting out his boat and laying in supplies.