tautening of the blanket.

As for escape, that was out of the question. No sooner did the submarine
boy touch the blanket than he shot skyward again. Had he desired to he
could not have called out. The motion and the sudden jolts shook all the
breath out of him.

“Ugh! Hm! Pleasant, isn’t it?” uttered Hal Hastings, grimly, under his
breath.

“If they try to do that to me,” whispered Eph, hotly, under his breath,
“I’ll fight.”

“More simpleton you, then!” Hal shot back at him in warning. “What chance
do you think you stand against a crowd like this?”

Just as suddenly as it had begun the blanket-tossing stopped. Yet, hardly
had Jack been allowed to step out than Hal Hastings was unceremoniously
dropped athwart the blanket. The tossing began again, to the chant of:

Sir, sir, surcingle!
Sir, sir, circle!

Right plentifully were these cadet midshipmen avenging themselves for
having had to say “sir” to these young submarine boys that day.

“Woof!” breathed Jack, as soon as breath entered his body again. Eph
clenched his fists tightly, as Hal continued to go higher and higher. But
at last Hastings’s ordeal was over.