the surrender of the port and city, and he wore his side-arms, and an expression in which there was no trace of pity.

"The Captain of the Port informed him that the military commander was at Ponce, but that he might be persuaded to surrender if the American naval officer would con descend to drive up to Ponce, and make his demand in person. The American officer fairly shook and quivered with indignation. 'Zounds,' and 'Gadzooks,' and 'Damme, sir,' would have utterly failed to express his as tonishment. Had it come to this, then, that an ensign, holding the President's commission, and representing such a ship of terror as the Wasp, was to go to a mere colonel, commanding a district of 60,000 inhabitants?

"How long will it take that military com. mander to get down here, if he hurries?'" demanded Ensign Curtin. The trembling Captain of the Port, the terrified foreign consuls, and the custom-house officials thought that a swift-moving cab might bring him to the port in half an hour. 'Have you a telephone about the place?' asked the Napoleonic Curtin. They had.

"Then call him up and tell him that if he does not come down here in a hack in thirty minutes and surrender, I shall bombard Ponce.""

"This was the Ensign's ultimatum. He turned his back on the terrified inhabitants and returned to his gig. Four hacks started on a mad race for Ponce, and the central office of

the telephone rang with hurry calls.

"On his way out to the ship, Ensign Curtin met Commander Davis on his way to the

Port of Manzanillo.

shore. Commander Davis looked at his watch. 'I shall extend his time another half hour,' said Commander Davis. Ensign Curtin saluted, sternly, making no criticism upon this weak generosity of his superior officer, but he could afford to be magnanimous. He, at least, had upheld the honor of the navy, and he will go down in the history of the war as the middy who demanded and obtained a surrender by telephone.

"General Miles landed in the morning after Curtin had taken the place, and Mr. Curtin came ashore in the same boat with us. We asked him if he had already landed, and he replied, modestly, that he had, but he spared the