And when they learned--from young Mr. Smith--that among these supplies
was a large assortment of plain-glass spectacles, of no magnifying power
whatever, the ridicule was unanimous and heartfelt; even the newspapers
taking up the case from the old standpoint and admitting that the line
ought to be drawn at lunatics and foolish people. But Lieutenant Metcalf
smiled and went quietly ahead, asking for and receiving orders to scout.

He received them the more readily, as all the scouts in the squadron,
including the torpedo-flotilla and two battle-ships, had come in with
blinded crews. Their stories were the same--they had all seen the
mysterious colored lights, had gone blind, and a few had felt the
itching and tingling of sunburn. And the admiral gleaned one crew of
whole men from the fleet, and with it manned his best ship, the
_Delaware_.

Metcalf went to sea, and was no sooner outside the Golden Gate than he
opened his case of spectacles, and scandalized all hands, even his
executive officer, by stern and explicit orders to wear them night and
day, putting on a pair himself as an example.

A few of the men attested good eyesight; but this made no difference, he
explained. They were to wear them or take the consequences, and as the
first man to take the consequences was Mr. Smith, whom he sent to his
room for twenty-four hours for appearing on deck without them five
minutes afterward, the men concluded that he was in earnest and obeyed
the order, though with smiles and silent ridicule. Another explicit
command they received more readily: to watch out for curious-looking
craft, and for small objects such as floating casks, capsized tubs or
boats, et cetera. And this brought results the day after the penitent
Smith was released. They sighted a craft without spars steaming along on
the horizon and ran down to her. She was a sealer, the skipper
explained, when hailed, homeward bound under the auxiliary. She had been
on fire, but the cause of the fire was a mystery. A few days before a
strange-looking vessel had passed them, a mile away. She was a whaleback
sort of a hull, with sloping ends, without spars or funnels, only a slim
pole amidships, and near its base a projection that looked like a
liner's crow's-nest. While they watched, their foremast burst into
flames, and while they were rigging their hose the mainmast caught fire.
Before this latter was well under way they noticed a round hole burnt
deeply into the mast, o