"That is all---for the present---Lieutenant Cantor," said Commander
Bainbridge, rising from his chair and hastening out.

"And all this, on account of a puppy of a junior who will not
use sense and reason at the request of a superior officer!" ground
Cantor between his teeth. "I shall pay Darrin for this, and for
that greater insult, too."

Some minutes before the call to breakfast was due, Darrin and
Dalzell appeared from their quarters and walked aft to where a
group of the "_Long Island's_" officers stood. Three or four
of them had newspapers in their hands.

"It's time the government did something!" exclaimed one lieutenant
commander, testily.

"We're going to do something, soon," asserted another officer,
with a snap of his jaws.

"When?" demanded a third officer, while several men laughed derisively.

"We'll have to," continued the second speaker. "Every day the
Mexican situation becomes worse. The usurper, Huerta, is becoming
more of a menace all the time. He has no regard for the rights
of any one, but himself. And he is unable to do more, in the
field, than to accept defeat after defeat at the hands of the
rebels under that former bandit chief, 'Pancho' Villa. Both the
so-called Federals and the rebels, in Mexico, are doing their
best to make Mexico a hotbed of incurable anarchy. Scores of