lutes of the young officers.

* * * * *

It was presently noised about among the ship's company that Ensigns
Darrin and Dalzell had been ordered ashore on special duty.

"How did you work it?" Lieutenant Barnes irritably demanded of Danny
Grin.

"Why? Do you want to work a trick yourself?" asked Dalzell,
unsympathetically.

"No such luck for me," growled Barnes. "While in port I am ordered to
take charge of shifting stores below decks."

"Fine!" approved Dan.

"And I wish I had you for junior officer on that detail," growled
Barnes.

"If I get tired of staying ashore," Danny Grin proposed genially,
"I'll make humble petition to be assigned as junior on your detail."

CHAPTER IX

M. DALNY PLANS A TRAGEDY

"Say, I wonder if these people call this a square deal," muttered
Danny Grin, as he surveyed the dish that the waiter had just left for
him. "I called for ham and eggs and potatoes, and the fellow has
brought me chicken and this dish of vegetables that none but a native
could name."

"Call the waiter back and ask him to explain his mistake," Ensign
Darrin suggested, smilingly.

"I can't talk their lingo," returned Dalzell plaintively.

"Nor can I speak much of it, either," admitted Dave.

"Can you speak any Italian?"

"Only a little, and very badly at that."

"Where did you learn Italian?" demanded Danny Grin.

"From an Italian-American cook on board our ship," Darrin explained.

"Whew! You must have done that while I was asleep," Dalzell
complained.

"I don't know enough Italian to carry me very far," laughed Darrin.
"Perhaps between two and three hundred useful words, and some of the
parts of a few verbs. Let me see just what you thought you were
ordering."

Dan held out a somewhat soiled bill of fare on which the names of the
dishes were printed in Italian and English.

"I tried to pronounce the Italian words right," Dan went on, with a
grimace.

"Let me hear you read the words over again," Dave begged.

Dan did so, his comrade's smile deepening.

"Dan," said Dave dryly, "you speak Italian as though it were French.
Italian is too delicate a language for that treatment."

"But what am I to do about this chicken?" Danny Grin persisted.

"Eat it," suggested Darrin, "and use some of your time ashore in
getting closer to the Italian language."

Dave was served with just what he had ordered for a pleasing meal--an
omelet, spaghetti and Neapolitan