e same social position, you
know, mamma."

"Yet why Mr. Dalzell, if you really don't care anything about
him?"

"Because he's so simple, mamma. He would be dreadfully easy to
manage!"

The four young people looking for the Atterlys had unavoidably
heard every word. They halted, Dan violently red in the face.
Then Laura, with quick tact, wheeled about and led the way back
to the ball room floor.

"Better luck next time, Dan," whispered Belle, gripping Dalzell's
arm.

"Don't you think twice is enough for a simpleton like me?" blurted
Midshipman Dan.

CHAPTER XVI

THE DAY OF MANY DOUBTS

Busy days followed, days which, for some of the first classmen,
were filled with a curious discontent.

Some, to be sure, among these midshipmen soon to graduate, took
each day as it came, with little or no emotion. To them the Naval
life ahead was coming only as a matter of course. There were
others, however---and Dave Darrin was among them---who looked
upon a commission as an officer of the Navy as a sacred trust
given them by the nation.

Dave Darrin was one of those who, while standing above the middle
of his class, yet felt that he had not made sufficiently good
use of his time. To his way of thinking there was an appalling
lot in the way of Naval duties that he did not understand.

"I may get through here, and out of here, and in another couple
of years be a line or engineer officer," Midshipman Darrin confided
to his chum and roommate one day. "But I shall be only a half-baked
sort of officer."

"Well, are cubs ever anything more?" demanded Dan.

"Yes; Wolgast, for instance, is going to be something more. So
will Fenton and Day, and several others whom I could name."

"And so is Darrin," confidently predicted Midshipman Dalzell.

But Dave shook his head.

"No, no, Danny boy. The time was when I might have believed extremely
well of myself, but that day has gone by. When I entered the
Naval Academy I probably thought pretty well of myself. I've tried
to keep up with the pace here-----"

"And you've done it, and are going to do it right along," interjected
Midshipman Dalzell.

"No; it almost scares me when I look over the subjects that I'm
not really fit in. It's spring, now, and I'm only a few weeks
away from graduation, only something like two years this side
of a commission as ensign, and---and---Dan, I wonder if I'm honestly
fit to command a rowboat."

"You've got a brief grouch aga