If you don't do this, I'm mighty confident that you're up against
a hard and tough time, and that you'll have most of the other
midshipmen down on you from the start."

"Any more 'roast' for me?" asked Dalzell plaintively.

"No; for, if you need any more, you'll get it from other midshipmen,
who don't know you as well as I do, and who won't make any allowances
for your greenness and freshness."

"My!" murmured Dan enthusiastically. "Won't I quiver with glee
the first time I see you being called for twelve-inch freshness!"

Yet, despite their wordy encounters, the two remained, as always,
the best and most loyal of friends.

For an hour and a half the two youngsters roamed about Annapolis,
taking many interested looks at quaint old buildings that had
stood since long before the Revolutionary War.

At last they turned back to the hotel, for, as Dalzell suggested,
they needed a long night's sleep as a good preparation for going
before the Naval surgeons on the next day.

Five minutes after they had turned out the gas Dave Darrin was
soundly, blissfully asleep.

In another bed in the same room Dan Dalzell tossed for fully
half an hour ere sleep caught his eyelids and pinned them down.
In his slumber, however, Dan dreamed that he was confronting