"Section, left wheel--march!"

They followed Whittam down into the dynamo room, an interesting spot for
a machinist.

"It's fine," muttered Dan, as he stared about him at the bright metal
work, the switch-board and the revolving machines. "But I'm afraid I
couldn't learn the use and sense of all this in five years."

"Silence in the section," commanded Dave, turning around upon his chum.

Whittam now began a short, preliminary talk upon the subjects in which
the midshipmen would be required to qualify.

"One of the first and most important requests I have to make," said
Whittam presently, "is that none of you touch the switches, except by
direction. None of you can guess the harm that might follow the careless
and ignorant handling of a switch."

"It's pretty cheeky for an enlisted man to talk to midshipmen about
ignorance," whispered Pennington to Farley.

"Oh, I don't know--" Farley started to reply, but Darrin's quiet voice
broke in with authority:

"Cease talking in section."

Farley knew this to be a merited rebuke, and accepted it as such, but
Pennington's face went violently red.