xamination.

"Humph!" uttered Mr. Mayhew. "That sort of trick isn't played on folks
in any decent resort on shore. I don't understand Mr. Benson's conduct.
I remember his mishap at Dunhaven. I remember the plight he got into
at Annapolis; and now he and Mr. Hastings are found in this questionable
shape. I am very much afraid these young men do not conduct themselves,
on shore, in the careful manner that must be expected of civilian
instructors to cadets."

Eph somers felt something boiling up inside of him.

CHAPTER XIX

THE LIEUTENANT COMMANDER'S VERDICT

"Let me try to get at your meaning, sir, if you please," begged Somers,
after standing for a few seconds with clenched fists. "Do you mean that
my friends have been going into tough resorts on shore?"

"Where else do sailors usually get drugged?" inquired Mr. Mayhew. "What
kind of people usually feed sea-faring men with what are generally known
as knock-out drops?"

"How should I know?" demanded Eph, solemnly.

"You see your friends, and you see their condition."

"Smell their breaths, sir. There isn't a trace of the odor of liquor."

The surgeon did so, confirming Eph's claim. "But I remember that Mr.
Benson came aboard, at Dunhaven, with a very strong odor of liquor,"
continued the lieutenant commander.

"That had been sprinkled on his clothes, sir," argued Somers.

"Perhaps. But then there was the Annapolis affair."

"Mr. Benson explained that to you, sir."

"It's very strange," returned the lieutenant commander, "that such
things seem to happen generally to Mr. Benson when he gets on shore.
I know I have been ashore, in all parts of the world, without having
such things happen to me."

"There is something behind this, sir, that doesn't spell bad conduct on
the part of either of my friends," cried Eph, hotly. "There's some
plot, some trick in the whole thing that we don't understand. And we
might understand much more about it, sir, if your midshipman had
arrested that pair of blackguards on the sloop, and brought them back
with us."

"Had Mr. Benson and Mr. Hastings been members of the naval forces we
could have done that," replied Mr. Mayhew. "Probably you don't
understand, Mr. Somers, how very careful the Navy has to be about
making arrests in times of peace, when the civil authorities are all
supreme. We carried our right as far as it could possibly be stretched
when we boarded and searched that sloop for you."

"I don'