ool, arranged a series of
affairs to which the four young people were invited.

Dave's happiest moments were when he had Belle to himself, for a stroll
or chat.

Dan's happiest moments, on the other hand, were when he was engaged in
hunting the old High School fellows, or such of them as were now at
home. For many of them had entered colleges or technical schools. Tom
Reade and Harry Hazelton, of the famous old Dick & Co., of High School
days, were now in the far southwest, under circumstances fully narrated
in "THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN ARIZONA," the second volume of "THE YOUNG
ENGINEERS' SERIES.'"

Day by day Belle jotted down in her notebook more specimens of
midshipman slang.

"I shall soon feel that I can reel off the language like a native of
Crabtown," she confided laughingly to Dare.

"It won't be very long before you have an opportunity to try," Dave
declared, "if you and Laura embrace your first opportunity to come to a
middy hop."

Dan had a happy enough time of it, even though Dave's suspicion was true
in that Dan had no sweetheart. That, however, was Dan's fault entirely,
as several of the former High School girls would have been willing to
assure him.

Since even the happiest times must all end so the latter part of
September drew near.

Then came the day when Dave and Dan met at the railway station. A host
of others were there to see them off, for the midshipmen still had
crowds of friends in the good old home town.

A ringing of bells, signaling brakesmen, a rolling of steel wheels and
the two young midshipmen swung aboard the train, to wave their hats from
the platform.

Gridley was gone--lost to sight for another year. Dan was exuberant
during the first hour of the journey, Dave unusually silent.

"You need a vast amount of cheering up, David, little giant!" exclaimed
Dalzell.

"Oh, I guess not," smiled Dave Darrin quietly, adding to himself, under
his breath:

"I carry my own good cheer with me, now."

Lightly his hand touched a breast pocket that carried the latest,
sweetest likeness of Miss Belle Meade.

One journey by rail is much like another to the traveler who pays little
heed to the scenery.

At the journey's end two well-rested midshipmen joined the throng of
others at Crabtown.

CHAPTER XIII

DAN RECEIVES A FEARFUL FACER

"Oh, you heap!" sighed Dan Dalzell dismally.

He sat in his chair, in their new quarters in Bancroft Hall, United
States Naval Academy, ga