"Sleep, he says."

"The lazy boy!"

"No, he's a tired boy, Belle. I think the past year has been even just a
little harder on him than it has on me. However, of course Dan won't
really sleep. He'll be out by this afternoon. Just now I imagine that
he's talking like wildfire with his mother."

It was a wrong guess, however. Just then the telephone sounded in the
next room, and Belle went to answer it.

"It's your shipmate, Dan," she called laughingly. "He wants to talk with
you, Dave."

"I wonder how the fellow ever guessed that I was here," smiled Darrin, as
he hastily joined Belle at the 'phone.

"Hello," hailed Dalzell at the other end of the wire. "Going to do
anything in particular this afternoon, David, little giant?"

"Yes; I hope to make myself more or less agreeable to Miss Meade."

"A small crowd won't be any bar to that, eh?" Dan wanted to know.

"Not if the crowd and the occasion are agreeable to Miss Meade."

"Well, you know Foss and Canty?"

"Two of our old High School boys? Yes."