your guests,
Mr. Somers?" Lieutenant Jack Benson asked quietly.

"Oh, I forgot," explained Eph, with another smile; "these young
gentlemen are not yet acquainted with me. When they are they'll
know that no one ever takes me too seriously."

"A bad habit for a superior officer, isn't it?" inquired Benson,
looking around at his student guests. "But Mr. Somers may be
taken very seriously indeed---when he's on duty. He is unreliable
at table only."

"Unreliable at table?" echoed Eph, helping himself to a slice
of roast meat. "Why, it seems to me that this is the one place
where I can be depended upon to do all that is expected of me."

The others now sat back, out of courtesy, looking on and chatting
while Ensign Eph Somers ate his meal. "There may be a few
questions---or many---that you would like to ask," suggested
Lieutenant Jack Benson. "If so, gentlemen, go ahead with your
questions. For that matter, during your stay aboard, ask all the
questions you can think of."

"Thank you, sir," replied Midshipman Dave Darrin, with a slight
bow. "I have been thinking of one point on which I would be glad
of information."

"And that is-----"

"The full complement of this craft appears to consist of three
officers and four enlisted men---that is, of course, outside of
your combined cook and steward."

"Yes," nodded Benson.

"One of the officers is commanding officer; another is deck officer
and the third engineer officer."

"Yes."

"Then, on a cruise," pursued Dave, "how can you divide watches
and thus keep going night and day?"

"Why, originally," Jack replied, "we put on long cruises with
only three aboard---the three who are at present officers. With
a boat like the 'Dodger,' which carries so few men, the commanding
officer cannot stand on his dignity and refuse to stand watch.
I frequently take my trick at the wheel. That gives Mr. Somers
his chance to go below and sleep."

"Yet Mr. Hastings is your only engineer officer."

"True, but two of our enlisted men are trained as engine-tenders.
Our engines are rather simple, in the main, and an enlisted
engine-tender can run our engine room for hours at a stretch under
ordinary conditions. Of course, if anything out of the usual should
happen while Mr. Hastings were taking his trick in his berth, he
would have to be wakened. But we can often make as long a trip as
from New York to Havana without needing to call Mr. Hastings once
from his berth during