The enemy rowed back and got out of their boat. Some of them acted pretty lame, too. They hunched around and rubbed sore spots, while we gave them the laugh. All of them went up to the hotel, where, after a while, we heard them hammering and hammering.

“B-buildin’ a modern navy,” says Mark. “Wooden vessels went out of style when the Monitor steamed into Hampton Roads.”

“Slingshots’ll go out of style, too, won’t they?” says I.

“They won’t be quite so useful, anyhow,” Mark says, “but I calc’late we’d better hang onto ’em.”

Motu’s eyes were shining. He looked about as happy as I’ve ever seen anybody look.

“It was a great battle,” says he. “My father has told me stories of the battles of ancient warriors of Japan. This was like them. When I come again to my country this day shall be spoken of with pride by my family, and in after-years my descendants shall tell their children of it.”

“Wait a bit,” says Mark, “and your decendants’ll have m-m-more to brag about. This day’s battle ain’t over yet by several shots.”

“The more fighting the more glory,” says Motu.

Now I didn’t feel that way about it. The more fighting the more bother, was my notion. I’d had plenty. My appetite was fed up, and I didn’t have any use for a second helping. But I didn’t come of a race of warriors. I expect my way of looking at it is the American way. We don’t fight for glory, but only when it’s necessary, and then we want it over with and done as soon as possible, just as we do any other disagreeable job that may come along.

“Look,” says Binney.

Around the corner of the hotel came four Japanese, carrying a sort of fence made of an old strip of carpet nailed on posts. They took it down to the boat and The Man showed them how to set it up and nail it in place so that the front and both sides of the craft were sheltered. With that armor a fellow couldn’t see the rowers at all; in fact, the whole five of them could sit in the boat and we couldn’t get a crack at them.

“Here’s where we get it,” says I to Mark.

“Maybe,” says he, “but you f-f-fellows fend off with your pike-poles, and, Tallow and Binney, you ’tend to anybody that reaches over to meddle with the poles while they’re holdin’ the boat. Get the idea? So long as we can hold off the boat n-nobody can land, and we can hold off the boat as l-long as our pike-poles are left alone.”

Well, sir, you’ll have to admit Mark was some general. That pike-pole idea was a dandy, and, in spite of their new armor, our slingshots would be useful a heap. And then, there was Mark up on the balcony of the third floor, and he could shoot right down on top of the Japs.

“Motu,” says I, “I guess those old warriors of your’n never had a better general than Mark Tidd.”

He just grinned.

Now the enemy was ready to attack again. They boarded their man-of-war and pushed off, and a funny-looking ship they had. Of course the rowers couldn’t see where they were going, and so somebody had to stand up to direct them. The Man took the job of being pilot, so we had something to shoot at from the beginning.

This time there was no chance of damaging the motive power, but we could make the pilot wish he had a periscope. It was lucky for us they didn’t have a submarine.

They came on steady and sure until they got in range. Then they kept on just as steady, only we kept The Man hopping. By the time they got within a hundred feet we had him ducking his head behind the armor plate and only sticking it up to take a peek every little while. The result of that was that the boat did quite a considerable bit of zigzagging.

However, they kept coming, and at last they were near enough so Mark Tidd could get a shot at them from his station above. He shot fast and often, and I expect those Japs wished their leader had put a roof on their shelter.

But, no matter how straight and how fast he could shoot, one boy couldn’t hold off the boat with a sling. Besides, it was difficult shooting. So, in a couple of minutes they got dangerously near to shore.

“P-p-pike-poles!” yelled Mark.

Motu and Plunk were ready. They jabbed their spikes into the bow of the boat and pushed. The boat stopped sudden and swung sideways. Plunk let go and ran along till he could spear the boat near the stern, and there they held her. The Japs tried to row, but Binney and I grabbed our lances with the boxing-glove pads on the end and poked at their paddles so they couldn’t do a thing.

The Man yelled something in Japanese, and the rowers pulled in their oars. In a second one of them stood up suddenly and smashed at Plunk’s pike-pole with his oar-blade. He might have hit if it hadn’t been for Mark and Binney. Both of them smacked him good with pebbles and he ducked. The best part of it was that he dropped his oar. Before they could do anything to recover it Mark yelled to me to get it, which I did with my pike. It was the first trophy of the war, and something to brag about like real soldiers do when they report they’ve captured so many of the enemy’s cannon, or some such thing.

The next thing they tried was a little more skilful, but it didn’t work much better. A man lifted the carpet armor a little at the bottom and shoved through his arm. He tried to grab the pike and jerk it away from Motu, but Motu had jabbed in his spike good, and he pushed like a Trojan. The man didn’t make much headway, and after we’d peppered his knuckles a couple of times he didn’t seem anxious to keep it up. He let go, and for a couple of minutes nothing happened. I guess The Man Who Will Come was holding a council of war with himself.

After that they tried poking their oars through and punching at the pike-poles with them, and that was a better scheme than any of the rest, for there wasn’t anything for our artillery to aim at. But they had to go it blind. Nobody seemed to want to stand up to see just where they were poking, so they didn’t have very good luck at it. A few times they thumped off one of the pike-poles, but before it did them any good Plunk or Motu would jab it in again, and they were no further ahead than before.

“Hey!” says Mark to The Man, “don’t you know history t-t-teaches that land defenses can’t be taken with a n-navy alone?”

“We take, all right,” says The Man from behind his shelter. “We take and then comes punishings. Ho! we shall see.”

“Better give it up,” says Mark. “We’ll let you go with honors of war.”

“No. You have our............