" remarked Lieutenant Barnes grouchily.

"Hello!" said Danny Grin, turning half around and eyeing the last
speaker. "You here?"

"As usual," nodded Barnes gruffly.

"What was that you said about a foolish question?" demanded Dan.

"I was referring to your habit of asking foolish questions," retorted
Barnes.

"Do I ask any more of them than you do?" Dalzell retorted, a bit
gruffly.

"You do," Barnes declared, "and that's one of them."

"If I thought I asked more foolish questions than you do, sir," Dan
rejoined, laying down his coffee cup, "I'd--"

Here Dalzell paused.

"What would you do?" Barnes insisted.

"On second thought," Dan went on gravely, "I don't believe I'll tell
you. It was something desperate that I was thinking of."

"Then drop the idea, Dalzell," scoffed Lieutenant Barnes lightly.
"You're hardly the fellow we'd look to for desperate deeds."

"Oh, am I not?" demanded Dan, for once a bit miffed.

Several of the officers glanced up apprehensively. From necessity,
life in the ward-room is an oppressively close one at best. A feud
between two officers of the mess is enough to make all hands
uncomfortable much of the time.

"Cut it, Barnes," ordered the officer sitting on the right-hand side
of Lieutenant Barnes. "Don't start any argument."

"Gentlemen," broke in the paymaster, anxious to change the topic of
conversation, "have you gone so far with your meal that a little bad
news won't spoil your appetites?"

Most of those present nodded, smilingly.

"Then," continued the paymaster, "I wish to bring up a matter that has
been discussed here before. You all know that in some way, owing to
the carelessness of some one, there is an unexplained shortage of
thirty-three dollars in our mess-fund. You appointed Totten and myself
a committee to look into the matter. We now beg to report that the
thirty-three dollars cannot be accounted for. What is your pleasure in
the matter?"

"I would call it very simple," replied Lieutenant Commander Wales.
"Why not levy an assessment upon the members of this mess sufficient
to make up the thirty-three dollars? It will amount to very little
apiece."

That way of remedying the shortage would have been agreed to promptly,
had not Lieutenant Barnes cut in eagerly:

"I've a better plan for making up the shortage. One man can pay it
all, as a penalty, and there will be a lot of fun in deciding which
member has to pay the penalty."

"What's the idea, Mr. Bar