em hung back when half-past eleven arrived.
They descended to the dining room, where they refreshed themselves
heartily.

The meal over, there was just about enough time left for them to walk
comfortably to the Navy Department.

They had walked a couple of blocks of the way when Hal suddenly felt the
stamped letter in his pocket. He drew it out, and glanced hurriedly
down the avenue.

"I don't see a letter-box ahead, fellows, but I saw one, half-way down
the block, at the last corner we passed. You two keep right on. I'll
join you."

Presently Jack and Eph halted in their walk to look back.

"Where is Hal?" demanded Somers.

"He can't have lost us," muttered Jack.

"Oh, I guess he has simply taken a short cut to meet us ahead on the
way."

Yet, though they continued to look for their comrade until they had
neared the State, War and Navy Building, Hal Hastings had not again
appeared in sight.

"Say, but this is fearfully careless of good old Hal," muttered Jack
Benson, uneasily, as he glanced at his watch. "We've no time to go back
to look for him, either, for we've barely time to reach the Secretary's
office."

"We'll have to go in without Hal, then," grumbled Eph. "It makes me
feel like a fool, too!"

Had the two lads but known it, there was still plenty of time. For the
Secretary of the Navy may make an appointment with an understrapper,
and then find that he must first see some more important personage.

There were "big" callers ahead of the boys that day, so that it was
nearly two o'clock when Lieutenant Jack and Ensign Eph were admitted to
the presence that they were to leave shorn of their brief rank and
command.

"Good afternoon, Lieutenant Benson. Good afternoon, Mr. Somers," was
Secretary Sanders's swift greeting. "You were most successful, and I
must congratulate you heartily. But--where is Mr. Hastings?"

"We don't know, Mr. Secretary," Jack admitted. "He left us for a short
time, as we thought, and, since then--"

Mr. Sanders wheeled sharply as the door opened and a clerk came in.

"Pardon me, sir," apologized the clerk. "But a note has just come for
Lieutenant Benson, sir, and the messenger was insistent that it was a
most important matter--"

"You may take your note and read it, Lieutenant," suggested the Secretary
of the Navy.

Young Benson gave a start when he recognized, in the address, the
handwriting of Hal Hastings.

In another instant Jack gave a much more viole