Dave Darrins Fourth Year at Annapolis | Page 4

know."
"Find it---on the jump!"
"But-----"

"There's no time for 'buts,'" retorted Darrin, pushing Farley toward the
door. "Find it!"
"And I-----" added Page, springing toward the door.
"You'll stay here," ordered Dave.
Darrin was already headed toward his friend's alcove, where Dalzell's
cot lay. Page followed.
"The dummy," explained Darrin briefly.
Every midshipman at Annapolis, doubtless, is familiar with the dummy.
Not so many, probably, are familiar with the doughface, which, at the
time this is written, was a new importation.
Swiftly Dave and Page worked. First they turned down the clothing,
after having hurriedly made up the cot. Now, from among the garments
hanging on the wall nearby the two midshipmen took down the
garments that normally lay under others. With these they rigged up a
figure not unlike that of a human being. At least, it looked so after the
bed clothes had been drawn up in place.
Then, glancing at the time, Dave Darrin waited---breathless.
Farley hastened into the room without losing time by knocking. Under
one arm he bore, half hidden, some roundish object, wrapped in a
towel.
Without a word, but with a heart full of gratitude, Dave Darrin snatched
out from its wrapping the effigy of a male human head. It was done in
wax, with human hair on the head.
Dave Darrin neatly fitted this at the top of the outlines of a figure under
the bed clothing.
Under the full light the doughface looked ghostly. In a dimmer light it
would do very well.

"Thank you a thousand times, fellows," trembled Dave Darrin. "Now
hustle to your own quarters before the first stroke of taps sounds."
The two useful visitors were gone like a flash. Ere they had quite
closed the door, Dave Darrin was removing his own uniform and
hanging up trousers and blouse. Next off came the underclothing and
on went pajamas.
Just then taps sounded. Out went the electric light, turned off at the
master switch.
Dave Darrin dived under the bed clothes on his own cot and tried to
still the beating of his own heart.
Two minutes later a brisk step sounded on the corridor of the "deck."
Door after door was opened and closed. Then the door to Dave's room
swung open, and a discipline officer and a midshipman looked into the
room.
"All in?" the midshipman called.
A light snore from Dave Darrin's throat answered. In his left hand the
discipline officer carried an electric pocket light. A pressure of a button
would supply a beam of electric light that would explore the bed of
either midshipman supposed to be in this room.
But the officer saw Midshipman Darrin plainly enough, thanks to
beams of light from the corridor. Over in the opposite alcove the
discipline officer made out, more vaguely, the lay figure and the
doughface intended to represent Midshipman Dan Dalzell.
"Both in. Darrin and Dalzell never give us any trouble, at any rate,"
thought the discipline officer to himself, then closed the door, and his
footsteps sounded further down the corridor.
"Oh, Danny boy, I wish I had you here right at this minute!" muttered
Dave Darrin vengefully. "Maybe I wouldn't whang your head off for

the fright that you've given me! I'll wager half of my hairs have turned
gray in the last minute!"
However, Midshipman Dan Dalzell was not there, as Darrin knew to
his own consternation. Dave did not go to sleep. Well enough he knew
that he was on duty indefinitely through the hours until Dan should
return. If Midshipman Darrin fell into a doze this night he would be as
bad as any sentry falling asleep on any other post.
So Darrin lay there and fidgeted. Twenty times he tried to solve, in his
own mind, the riddle of why Dalzell should be away, and where he was.
But it was a hopeless puzzle.
"Of course, Danny didn't hint that he was going to French it tonight,"
thought Dave bitterly. "Good reason why, too! He knew that, if I got
wind of his intention, I'd thrash him sooner than let him take such a
chance. Oh, Dan! Dan, you idiot! To take such a fool chance in your
last year here, when detection probably means your being dropped from
brigade, and your career ended!"
For Dave Darrin knew the way of discipline officers too well to
imagine that that one brief inspection of the room was positively all the
look-in that would be offered that night. Some discipline officers have
a way of looking in often during the night. Being themselves graduates
of the Naval Academy, officers are sure to know that the inspection
immediately after taps does not always suffice. Midshipmen have been
known to be in bed at taps, and visiting in quarters of other midshipmen
ten