me the list, and I will pass upon
it."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"You are relieved from further duty for the present."

"Aye, aye, sir."

Dan made a dignified salute, and walked away with his shoulders a
little more erect than usual. But the moment he was sure he had gotten
out of sight of the officer, he started off on a run to carry the good
news to Sam Hickey. Sam was not over enthusiastic. He was still
grumbling over the loss of the tompion, which meant also the loss of
twenty-five dollars to himself.

Within the hour he had handed in the list of names of the men chosen
for signal duty. This list was approved by the executive officer and
the captain, and that afternoon Dan assembled his class on the forward
deck for their first lesson. Not a man of them had ever before had
signal instruction.

In military formation the Battleship Boy marched his class up and out
to the forward deck.

"Halt!" he commanded. "Left face! Right dress! Front!"

"Coates, that was pretty well done, eh?" chuckled the captain, who,
with his executive officer, was leaning over the bridge railing,
watching the proceedings.

"Open order, march!"

The men of the class spread out so that there was plenty of open space
in front of each man.

The Battleship Boy gave the men a brief talk on the general subject of
signaling, impressing upon them the need of accuracy.

"Do not try to be fast. Speed will come in good time, but make it your
ambition both to send and to read messages with absolute accuracy. We
will now begin with the code, which is as follows:"

Davis ran through the code, signaling out each letter slowly in order
to show the men how the movements were executed.

The wig-wag code, as used in the United States Navy, consists of a
series of numbers that represent the letters of the alphabet. They are
delivered by a red flag bearing a white square in its center. The code
that Dan spelled out is as follows:

A .................. 22 O .................. 21
B .................. 2112 P .................. 1212
C .................. 121 Q .................. 1211
D .................. 222 R .................. 211
E .................. 12 S .................. 212
F .................. 2221 T .................. 2
G .................. 2211 U .................. 112
H .................. 122 V .................. 1222
I .................. 1 W .................. 1121