"I am, sir," replied a portly, red-faced Englishman, leaning out of the
wheel-house window.

"What'll you charge to land us in haste aboard the American battleship
'Massachusetts'?" asked Darrin eagerly.

"Half a sov. will be about right, sir," replied the tender's skipper,
touching his cap at sight of the American Naval uniform.

"Good enough," glowed Dave, leaping aboard. "Cast off as quickly as you
can, captain, or we'll be in a heap of trouble with our discipline
officers."

The English skipper was quick to act. He routed out two deckhands, who
quickly cast off. Almost while the deckhands were doing this the skipper
rang the engineer's bell.

"Come into the wheel-'ouse with me," invited the skipper pleasantly,
which invitation the three middies accepted. "Now, then, young
gentlemen, 'ow did it 'appen that you missed your own launches."

"It was a mean trick--a scoundrelly one!" cried Darrin resentfully. Then
he described just what had happened.

The skipper's own bronzed cheeks burned to a deeper color.

"I can 'ardly believe that an Englishman would play such a trick on
young h'officers of a friendly power," he declared. "But I told you,
sir, the fare out to your ship would be half a sov. I lied. If a nasty
little cockney played such a trick on you, it's my place, as a decent