Dave Darrin's Second Year at Annapolis Part 3

The other mids.h.i.+pman flared up.

"Why must I give you my word of honor?" he demanded defiantly. "Isn't my plain word good enough?"

"Your word of honor that you had never smoked opium before to-day would help to ease my mind a whole lot," replied Darrin. "Come, unburden yourself, won't you, Pen?"

"I'll tell you, Darry, just how it happened. To-day _was_ the first time, on my word of honor, I came out into Annapolis with a raging toothache. Now, you know how a fellow gets to hate to go before the medical officers of the Academy with a tale about his teeth."

"Yes, I do," nodded Darrin. "If a fellow is too much on the medical report for trouble with his teeth, then it makes the surgeons look his mouth over with all the more caution, and in the end a fellow may get dropped from the brigade just because he has invited over zeal from the dentist. But what has all this to do with opium smoking?"

"Just this," replied Pennington, hanging his head. "I went into a drug store and asked a clerk that I know what was the best thing for toothache. He told me the best he knew was to smoke a pipe of opium, and told me where to find Chow Hop, and what to say to the c.h.i.n.k. And it's all a lie about opium helping a sore tooth," cried the wretched mids.h.i.+pman, clapping a hand to his jaw, "for there goes that fiendish tooth again! But say! You fellows are not going to leak about my little mishap?"

"No," replied Darrin with great promptness. "You're going to do that yourself."

"What?" gasped Mids.h.i.+pman Pennington in intense astonishment. "What are you talking about?"

"You'll be wise to turn in a report, on what happened," pursued Dave, "for it's likely to reach official ears, anyway, and you'll be better off if you make the first report on the subject."

"Why is it likely to reach official ears, if you fellows keep your mouths shut?"

"You see," Darrin went on very quietly, "I reported the joint at the police station, and Chow Hop threatened that, if I did, he'd tell all he knew about everybody. So you'd better be first----"

"You broke the game out to the police!" gasped Pennington, staring dumfoundedly at his comrade. "What on earth----"

"I did it because I had more than one satisfactory reason for considering it my duty," interposed Dave, speaking quietly though firmly.

"You--you--bag of wind!" exploded Mids.h.i.+pman Pennington.

"I'll accept your apology when you've had time to think it all over,"

replied Dave, with a smile, though there was a brief flash in his eyes.

"I'll make no apology to you--at any time, you--you--greaser!"

Marks for efficiency or good conduct, which increase a mids.h.i.+pman's standing, are called "grease-marks" or "grease" in mids.h.i.+pman slang.

Hence a mids.h.i.+pman who is accused of currying favor with his officers in order to win "grease" is contemptuously termed a "greaser."

"I don't want to talk with you any more, Mr. Darrin," Pennington went on bitterly, "or walk with you, either. When I get over this toothache I'll call you out--you greaser!"

Burning with indignation, Mids.h.i.+pman Pennington fell back to walk with Hallam.

CHAPTER II

DAVE'S PAP-SHEET ADVICE

When our party reached the landing a lively scene lay before them.

Fully a hundred mids.h.i.+pmen, belonging to the first, second and third cla.s.ses, were waiting to be transported out to one or another of the great, gray battles.h.i.+ps.

Several launches were darting back and forth over the water. The baggage of the mids.h.i.+pmen had already been taken aboard the battles.h.i.+ps. Only the young men themselves were now awaited.

Near-by stood a lieutenant of the Navy, who was directing the embarkation of the mids.h.i.+pmen of the different cla.s.ses.

Five minutes after our party arrived a launch from the "Ma.s.sachusetts"

lay in alongside the landing.

"Third cla.s.smen, this way!" shouted the lieutenant. "How many of you?"

Turning his eyes over the squad that had moved forward, the officer continued:

"Twenty-two. You can all crowd into this launch. Move quickly, young gentlemen!"

In another couple of minutes the puffing launch was steaming away to the ma.s.sive battles.h.i.+p that lay out in the stream.

Dave stood well up in the bow. Once he barely overheard Pennington mutter to a comrade:

"The rascally greaser!"

"That means me," Dave muttered under his breath. "I won't take it up now, or in any hurry. I'll wait until Pen has had time to see things straight."

As soon as the launch lay alongside, the young mids.h.i.+pmen clambered nimbly up the side gangway, each raising his cap to the flag at the stern as he pa.s.sed through the opening in the rail.

Here stood an officer with an open book in his hand. To him each mids.h.i.+pman reported, saluting, stated his name, and received his berthing.

"Hurry away to find your berthings, and get acquainted with the location," ordered this officer. "Every mids.h.i.+pman will report on the quarter-deck promptly at five p.m. In the meantime, after locating your berthings, you are at liberty to range over the s.h.i.+p, avoiding the ward room and the staterooms of officers."

The latest arrivals saluted. Then, under the guidance of messengers chosen from among the apprentice members of the crew, the young men located their berthings.

"I'm going to get mine changed, if I can," growled Pennington, wheeling upon Dave Darrin. "I'm much too close to a greaser. I'm afraid I may get my uniforms spotted, as well as my character."

"Stop that, Pen!" warned Dave, stationing himself squarely before the angry Pennington. "I don't know just how far you're responsible for what you're saying now. To-morrow, if you make any such remarks to me, you'll have to pay a mighty big penalty for them."

"You'll make me pay by going to the commandant and telling him all you know, I suppose?" sneered Pennington.

"You know better, Pen! Now, begin to practise keeping a civil tongue behind your teeth!"

With that, Darrin turned on his heel, seeking the deck.

This left "Pen" to conjecture as to whether he should report his misadventure, and, if so, how best to go about it.

"See here, Hallam," began the worried mids.h.i.+pman, "I begin to feel that it will be safer to turn in some kind of report on myself."

"Much safer," agreed Hallam. "It will show good faith on your part if you report yourself."

"And get me broken from the service, too, I suppose," growled the unhappy one.