orming
a silent cheer.

Then Dan, with a mighty swoop of his right arm, let his lips form the
word that everyone knew to be "tiger!"

"Ugh-h-h!" groaned Midshipman Reilly.

"Throw that irresponsible Fenian out!" directed Dan, grinning.

Then the midshipmen turned their attention to the remnants of the meal.

Boom! sounded sharply overhead.

"There goes the twenty-one-gunner," announced Darrin.

When a foreign battleship enters a fortified port the visiting fleet, or
rather, its flagship, fires a national salute of twenty-one guns. After
a short interval following the discharge of the last gun, one of the
forts on shore answers with twenty-one guns. This is one of the methods
of observing the courtesies between nations by their respective fleets.

Ere all the guns had been fired from the flagship, the third classmen
received the rising signal; the class marched out and was dismissed.
Instantly a break was made for deck.

The midshipmen were in good time to see the smoke and hear the roar of
guns from one of the forts on shore.

In the morning the commandant of cadets, as commanding officer of the
squadron, would go ashore with his aide and pay a formal call to the
senior military officer. Later in the day that English officer and one
or two of his staff officers would return the call by coming out to the
flagship. That accomplished, all the required courtesies would have been
observed.

It was still broad daylight, for in summer the English twilight is a
long one, and darkness does not settle down until late.

"Oh, if we were only going ashore to-night!" murmured Hallam. There were
many others to echo the thought, but all knew that it could not be done.

"Couldn't we find a trick for slipping ashore after lights out?"
eagerly queried Dickey, who was not noted as a "greaser."

"Could we?" quivered Hallam, who, with few demerits against him, felt
inclined to take a chance.

But Pennington, to whom he appealed, shook his head.

"Too big a risk, Hally," replied Pen. "And trebly dangerous, with that
greaser, Darrin, in the class."

"Oh, stow that," growled Hallam. "Darrin is no greaser. You've got him
on your black books--that's all."

"He is a greaser, I tell you," cried Pennington fiercely.

There were a score of midshipmen in this group, and many of them nodded
approvingly at Pennington's statement. Though still a class leader, Dave
had lost some of his popularity since his report to the police of
A