"You want to see Darrin win?"

"If there has to be a fight, I do," replied Midshipman Hallam.

"Don't bet your money on him, anyway."

"I'm not a gambler, Penny, and I don't bet," replied Hallam, with a
dignity that, somehow, ended the conversation.

Pennington had considerable difficulty, at first, in finding a second.
At last, however, he induced Decker and Briggs to represent him.

These two midshipmen went to see Dan Dalzell.

"Wait until I send for Mr. Farley," proposed Dalzell. He soon had that
midshipman, who was wholly willing to serve Darrin in any capacity.

"We're ready to have the fight this evening," proposed Midshipman
Decker.

"We're not," retorted Dan, with vigor.

"Why not?"

"This forenoon Pennington deliberately stepped on Darrin's shoulder,
with such force as to lame it a good deal," replied Dan. "Our man
insists that he has a right to rest his shoulder, and to wait until
to-morrow."

"But to-morrow we have a short shore liberty at Hampton Roads,"