n is overboard
in an angry sea all hands left behind try to be optimists.

When fifteen minutes had been spent in the search the onlooking but
helpless middies began to look worried.

At the end of half an hour some of them looked haggard. Farley's face
was pitiable to see.

At the end of an hour of constant but fruitless searching hardly any one
felt any hope of a rescue now.

All three midshipmen, the "man overboard" and his two willing, would-be
rescuers, were silently conceded to be drowned.

Yet the hardest blow of all came when, at the end of an hour and a
quarter, the flagship signaled the recall of the small boats.

Then, indeed, all hope was given up. In an utter human silence, save for
the husky voicing of the necessary orders, the launches were hoisted on
board. Then the flagship flew the signal for resuming the voyage.

There were few dry eyes among the third class midshipmen when the
battleships fell in formation again and proceeded on their way.

As a result of more signals flown from the flagship, all unnecessary
duties of midshipmen for the day were ordered suspended.

In the afternoon the chaplain on each battleship held funeral services
over the three lost midshipmen. Officers, middies and crew attended on
board each vessel.

CHAPTER IX

THE DESPAIR OF THE "RECALL"

Dave Darrin stood within ten feet of Hallam when that latter midshipman
had lost his balance and fallen into the boiling sea.

Dave's spring to the stern rail was all but instantaneous. He was
overboard, after his classmate, ere the marine had had time to leap to
the life buoys.

Out of the corner of one eye Dan Dalzell saw the marine start on the
jump, but Dan was overboard, also, too soon to see exactly what the
marine sentry was doing.

Both daring midshipmen sank beneath the surface as they struck.

As Dan came up, however, his hand struck something solid and he clutched
at it. It was one of the life buoys.

As he grasped it, and drew his head up a trifle, Dan saw another
floating within thirty feet of him. Swimming hard, and pushing, Dan
succeeded in reaching the other buoy. He now rested, holding on to both
buoys.

"Now, where's David, that little giant?" muttered Dalzell, striving hard
to see through the seething waters and over the tops of foam-crested
waves.

After a few minutes Dan began to feel decidedly nervous.

"Yet Dave can't have gone down, for he's a better swimmer than I am,"
was Dan's co