H. Irving Hancock

“ To not one of the trio did it occur to let go of the life buoys and sink as a means of ending misery. In the first place, human instinct holds to hope. In the second place, suicide is the resort of cowards.
"None of you happened to hide any food in his pockets at breakfast, I take it?" asked Dan grimly, at last.
Of course they hadn't.
"Too bad," sighed Dan. "I'm growing terribly hungry."
"Catch a fish," smiled back Darrin.
"And eat it raw?" gasped Dalzell. "Darry, you know my tastes better than that."
"Then wait a few hours longer," proposed Dave, "until even raw fish will be a delicacy." ”

“ Midshipman Edgerton, looking very much puzzled, stepped over to Dave Darrin's corner.
"Darrin," began the referee in a friendly tone, "Tread doesn't like the idea of fighting you again to-night."
"Didn't he say he would?" demanded Darrin.
"Yes; but of course, but—"
"I hold him to his word, Mr. Edgerton."
"But of all the crazy—"
"I have my own reasons, sir," Darrin interposed quietly. "I think it very likely, too, that Mr. Treadwell will comprehend my reasons."
"But he doesn't like the idea of fighting an already half-whipped man."
"Will it get on his nerves and unsteady him?" ”

“ Miss Stevens was a calculating young person, and had already decided that Navy life was the life for her and that she would marry into it. At seventeen, she looked upon the officers as old men, even the youngest of them, so was giving her time and her smiles to the midshipmen. That the Navy pay is small did not trouble Maid Marian, as she liked to be called, as on her twenty-first birthday she would come into a considerable fortune of her own.
She exerted herself all through the Stearns' dinner to captivate Dave Darrin. ”

“ Suddenly Dave swung his right in on the point of Pen's chin with a force that jolted the larger midshipman. As part of the same movement, Darrin's left crashed against Pennington's nose.
Then, out of chivalry, Dave dropped back, to give Pen a few moments, in case he needed them, to get his wits back.
"Time!" roared Dawley, and Pennington's seconds pounced upon him and bore him away to his corner.
"Now I know how that fellow Darrin wins his fights," growled Pennington in an undertone. "He keeps on running away until he has the other man gasping for breath. Then Darrin jumps in and wins." ”

“ To Dave it seemed more like half an hour.
"Steady, now!" murmured Page, in his principal's ear, as the two seconds leaped at the task of rubbing down their men. "Unless you let yourself get rattled, Darry, that big fellow isn't going to get you. Whenever you're on the defensive, and being crowded hard, change like lightning and drive in for the top classer's solar plexus."
"I tried that three times in this last round," murmured Dave. "But the fellow is too big and powerful for me. He simply pounds me down when I go for him." ”

“ Farley's face was pitiable to see.
At the end of an hour of constant but fruitless searching hardly any one felt any hope of a rescue now.
All three midshipmen, the "man overboard" and his two willing, would-be rescuers, were silently conceded to be drowned.
Yet the hardest blow of all came when, at the end of an hour and a quarter, the flagship signaled the recall of the small boats.
Then, indeed, all hope was given up. In an utter human silence, save for the husky voicing of the necessary orders, the launches were hoisted on board. Then the flagship flew the signal for resuming the voyage. ”

“ Darrin had yielded up "first blood" in the fight.
"I've got to dodge more, and not let myself be cornered," Darrin told himself, keeping his fists busy in warding off blows.
Then, of a sudden, Dave turned on the aggressive. He struck fast and furiously, but Treadwell, with a grin, beat down his attack, then soon landed a swinging hook on Dave's neck that sent him spinning briefly.
"He expects to finish this fight for his own amusement," flashed angrily through Darrin's mind. "I'll get in something that hurts before I toss the sponge." ”

“ The midshipmen, too, hurried forward, mingling with the crew, as the big battleship swung around and tried to find her wake.
The flagship had crowded on extra steam, and was fast coming over the seas.
With such a sea running, it was well nigh impossible to make out so small a thing as a head or a life-preserver, unless it could be observed at the instant when it crested a wave.
Marine glasses were in use by every officer who had brought his pair to the deck. Others rushed back to their cabins to get them. ”

“ The voice of Midshipman David Darrin, United States Navy, vibrated uneasily as he turned to his comrades.
"It's a shame—that's what it is," quivered Mr. Farley, also of the third class at the United States Naval Academy.
"But the question is," propounded Midshipman Dan Dalzell, "what are we going to do about it?"
"Is it any part of our business to bother with the fellow?" demanded Farley half savagely.
Now Farley was rather hot-tempered, though he was "all there" in points that involved the honor of the brigade of midshipmen. ”

“ How thoughtful of Dave to send it to me!" Then her eyes fell on two figures around which a ring had been drawn in ink. They were Dave Darrin and a pretty girl. On the margin of the card had been scrawled in bold letters:
"Your affair of the heart will bear close watching if you still cherish!"
This was signed, contemptibly and untruthfully, "A Friend."
"Uh!" murmured Belle in hurt pride and loyalty. Then she said resolutely to herself: "I will pay no attention to this. An anonymous communication is always meant to hurt and to give a false impression." ”

“ But you must never repeat it to any one. Treadwell wanted to dance with Belle at the hop, but she had already noticed him, and declared she didn't want to dance with him. Of course that settled it. But Treadwell accused me of not having asked Belle."
"The nerve!" ejaculated Dan in disgust.
"And then he accused me of lying when I declared I had done my best for him," continued Dave.
"I feel that I'd like to fight the fellow myself!" declared Dan Dalzell hotly.
"Oh, no, you don't; for Treadwell apologized to-night, and we have shaken hands. We're all comrades, you know, Danny boy." ”

“ I'd hate to visit a strange country, like Annapolis, and find I didn't know the language. And, Dave, what sort of place is Annapolis, anyway?"
"Oh, it's a suburb of the Naval Academy," Dave answered.
"Is it dreadfully hard to keep one's place in his class there?" asked Belle.
"Well, the average fellow is satisfied if he doesn't 'bust cold,'" Dave informed her. ”

“ Then, instantly, on top of it, came the rousing hail:
"Man overboard—astern!"
Farley and Hallam were the first to reach the rail. But Lieutenant Burton was there almost as quickly.
"Haul back!" commanded the lieutenant sternly. "No one go overboard!"
That held the middies in check, for in no place, more than in the Navy, are orders orders.
Clack! was the sound that followed the first cry. Like a flash the marine sentry had thrown his rifle to the deck. A single bound carried him to one of the night life buoys. This he released, and hurled far astern. ”

“ Not if you make a good fight!"
"Fight—nothing!" sighed Dan wearily. "In a fight there's some one else that you can hit back at. But I won't have a blessed soul to fight. I'm up against a gang who are all referees, and all down on me at the outset."
"Nonsense," combatted Dave. "You——"
"Oh, that's all right, David, little giant," returned Dalzell with an attempt at cheeriness. "You mean well, but a fellow isn't reported deficient unless he's so far behind that the Board has his case settled in advance. ”

“ Dave told her dryly.
"The instructor in boxing?" asked Belle.
It was a wonderfully delightful stroll that the middy and his sweetheart enjoyed that September forenoon.
Once Dave sighed, so pronouncedly that Belle shot a quick look of questioning at him.
"Tired of our understanding already?" she demanded.
"No; I was thinking how sorry I am for Danny boy! He doesn't know the happiness of having a real sweetheart."
"How do you know he doesn't?" asked Belle quickly. "Does he tell you everything?" ”

“ Pennington," answered Darrin, opening his eyes.
"There are some," continued Pennington, "who have intimated to me their belief that I did it on purpose. There may be others who half believe or suspect that I might, or would, do such a thing."
"Nonsense!" retorted Dave promptly. "There may be differences, sometimes, between classmates, but there isn't a midshipman in the Navy who would deliberately try to drown a comrade. It's a preposterous insult against midshipman honor. If I hear any one make a charge like that, I'll call him out promptly." ”

“ Chow looked very much as though he did not care for company, but Midshipman Darrin kept at his side.
"Now, see here, Chow," warned Dave, "this is the last day you sell opium for white men to smoke!"
"You heap too flesh (fresh) " growled the Chinaman.
"It's the last day you'll sell opium to white men," insisted Dave, "for, as soon as I'm through here I'm going to the police station to inform against you. They'll go through here like a twelve-inch shot." ”

“ A few very bright youngsters went along all right, but to most of the third classmen graduation began to look a thousand years away.
The football squad was out now and training in deadly earnest. There were many big games to be played, but most of all the middies longed to tow West Point's Army eleven into the port of defeat.
In their first year Dave and Dan had looked forward longingly to joining the gridiron squad. They had even practised somewhat. But now they realized that playing football in the second year at Annapolis must be, for them, merely a foolish dream. ”

“ Darrin managed to get at his own watch.
"My timepiece doesn't call for half past nine, either," he announced.
"Can it be possible—"
"Yes; the time has only seemed longer, I reckon," observed Dalzell.
"Well, we'll face it like men," proposed Dave.
"Of course," nodded Dan. "At least, we're going down in the ocean, and we wear the American Naval uniform. If there's any choice in deaths, I guess that's as good and manly a one as we could choose." ”

“ To-day was the first time, on my word of honor, I came out into Annapolis with a raging toothache. Now, you know how a fellow gets to hate to go before the medical officers of the Academy with a tale about his teeth."
"Yes, I do," nodded Darrin. "If a fellow is too much on the medical report for trouble with his teeth, then it makes the surgeons look his mouth over with all the more caution, and in the end a fellow may get dropped from the brigade just because he has invited over zeal from the dentist. But what has all this to do with opium smoking?" ”

“ What sort of explosion is 'busting cold'?"
"Why, that means getting down pretty close to absolute zero in all studies. When a fellow has the hard luck to bust cold the superintendent allows him all his time, thereafter, to go home and look up a more suitable job than one in the Navy. And when a fellow bilges——"
"Stop!" begged Belle. "Wait!"
She fled from the room, to return presently bearing the prettiest hat that Dave ever remembered having seen on her shapely young head. In one hand she carried a dainty parasol that she turned over to him.
"What's the cruise?" asked Darrin, rising. ”

“ This time it was Belle who contrived and got the introduction to the other girl, but Marian was by no means reluctant, so it was that they managed to get a few moments alone together when they had sent their dance partners to get something for them.
"You are a friend of Dave's, aren't you?" asked Marian.
"Of Mr. Darrin's? Oh, yes, we've always known each other."
"Then you've been here to many of these dances?"
"Only two."
"Too bad you could not have been here oftener. This has been an unusually brilliant season. Really, many of the young people have lost their heads—or their hearts. ”

“ Pennington, with the blood flowing from his damaged nose, would have made a most ludicrous figure saluting!
The instant that he saw such evidence as Pen's nose presented the officer would be bound to make inquiries.
Then, just as surely, his next step must be to Border the three before the commandant of midshipmen.
Fighting carries with it a severe penalty. Even Dan was certain to be reported, through the mere fact of his presence there, as aiding in a fight. And those who aid are punished as severely as the principals themselves. ”

“ But the question is, are we ever going to pick up? As I look through my books it seems to me that every succeeding lesson is twice as hard as the one before it."
"Other men have gone through, every year."
"And still other men have been dropped every year," Dalzell dolefully reminded him.
"We're among those who are going to stay," Dave contended stubbornly.
"Then I'm afraid we'll be among those who are dropped after Christmas and come back, next year, as bilgers," Dalzell groaned.
"Now, drop that!" commanded Darrin, almost roughly. ”

“ Farley's opinion was that Dave was done for, unless he could land some lucky fluke in a knockout blow.
"Go right in and land that youngster," Treadwell's own seconds were advising him. "Don't let him have the satisfaction of standing up to you for three whole rounds or more."
"Do you think that little teaser is as easy as he looks?" growled Treadwell.
"Oh, Darrin is all right at his own weight," admitted Midshipman Conners. "But he has no business with you, Tread. You're quick enough, too, when you exert yourself. So jump right in and finish it before this round is over." ”

“ Darrin and Pennington nodded their assent.
"Take your places, gentlemen," ordered the referee quickly. "Are you ready, gentlemen?"
"Yes," came from both principals.
"Time!"
Both men had their guards up. As the word left the referee's lips each tried two or three passes which the other blocked. Midshipman Pennington was trying to take his opponent's "measure."
Then Dave ducked, darted, dodged and wheeled about. Pennington had to follow him, and it made the latter angry.
"Stand up and fight, can't you," hissed Pen.
"Silence during the rounds, Mr. Pennington," admonished the referee quietly. ”

“ But I'd like to have been divested of my rank for just an hour so that I could have taken in such a scene as that."
"I'm—I'm just a bit astonished at your saying it, Stearns," rejoined Lieutenant Willow. "But then, you're always joking."
"Perhaps I am joking," assented the officer in charge dryly, "but I never lose sight of the fact that our Navy has been built up, at huge expense, as a great fighting machine. Now, Willow, it takes fighting men to run a fighting machine. Of course, I'm terribly shocked to know that two midshipmen really had the grit to fight—but who were they! ”