“That had been sprinkled on his clothes, sir,” argued Somers.

“Perhaps. But then there was the Annapolis affair.”

“Mr. Benson explained that to you, sir.”

“It’s very strange,” returned the lieutenant commander, “that such things
seem to happen generally to Mr. Benson when he gets on shore. I know I
have been ashore, in all parts of the world, without having such things
happen to me.”

“There is something behind this, sir, that doesn’t spell bad conduct on
the part of either of my friends,” cried Eph, hotly. “There’s some plot,
some trick in the whole thing that we don’t understand. And we might
understand much more about it, sir, if your midshipman had arrested that
pair of blackguards on the sloop, and brought them back with us.”

“Had Mr. Benson and Mr. Hastings been members of the naval forces we could
have done that,” replied Mr. Mayhew. “Probably you don’t understand, Mr.
Somers, how very careful the Navy has to be about making arrests in times
of peace, when the civil authorities are all-supreme. We carried our right
as far as it could possibly be stretched when we boarded and searched that
sloop for you.”

“I don’t care so much about that,” contended Eph, warmly. “But it does jar
on me, sir, to have you take such a view of my friends. You don’t know
them; you don’t understand them as Mr. Farnum and Mr. Pollard do.”

“Perhaps you wouldn’t blame me as much for my opinions,” replied Mr.