"Another good old yell," proposed Darrin.

It was given with a lusty will, but proved as fruitless as the former
one.

"We don't take the last launch back to ship," declared Farley, wild with
rage.

"Which means a long string of demerits," said Dan.

"No shore leave to-morrow, either," groaned Darrin. "Fellows, this
mishap will affect our shore leave throughout all the cruise."

"We can explain it," suggested Farley with a hopefulness that he did not
feel at all.

"Of course we can," jeered Dave Darrin. "But what officer is fool enough
to believe such a cock-and-bull story as this one will seem? At the very
least, the commandant would believe that we had been playing some pretty
stiff prank ourselves, in order to get treated in this fashion. No, no,
fellows! We may just as well undeceive ourselves, and prepare to take
the full soaking of discipline that we're bound to get. If we attempted
this sort of explanation, we'd be lucky indeed to get through the affair
without being tried by general court-martial for lying."

"Drake's anchor, indeed!" exclaimed Dan in deep self disgust.

"We ought to have known better," grunted Farley, equally enraged with
himself. "What on earth made us so absent-minded as to believe that a