“I suppose they’ll try that on me!” gritted Eph Somers to himself. “If
they do—”

That was far as he got, for Eph was suddenly flung upon the blanket.

Sir, sir, surcingle!

Then how Eph _did_ go up and down! It was as though these cadet midshipmen
knew that it would make Eph mad, madder, maddest! These budding young
naval officers fairly bent to their work, tautening and loosening on the
blanket until their muscles fairly ached.

It was lofty aerial work that Eph Somers was doing. Up and up—higher and
higher! Without the need of any effort on his own part young Somers was
now traveling upward at the rate of ten or eleven feet at every punctuated
bound.

Then, suddenly, there came a sound that chilled the blood of every young
cadet midshipman hazer present.

“_Halt!_ Where you are!”

Under the shadow of the barracks building a naval officer had appeared. He
now came forward, a frown on his face, eyeing the culprits.

It is no merry jest for cadet midshipmen to be caught at hazing! And here
were some thirty of them—red-handed!