wing
almost accustomed to disappointments."

As the minutes passed and the liner came on and on, it looked still
more as though she would run down the three middies.

[Illustration: "Look! They See Us!"]

At last, however, the craft was passing, showing her port side, not very
far distant, to be sure.

Uniting their voices, the three midshipmen yelled with all their power,
even though they knew that their desperate call for help could not carry
the distance over the subsiding gale.

Boom! That shot came from the liner, and now her port rail was black
with people.

"They see us!" cried Hallam joyously. "Look! That craft is slowing up!"

Once more came the cheers of encouragement, as the liner, now some
distance ahead, put off a heavy launch. A masthead lookout, who had
first seen the midshipmen, was now signaling the way to the officer in
command of the launch.

Unable to see for himself, the officer in the launch depended wholly on
those masthead signals. So the launch steamed a somewhat zig-zag course
over the waves. Yet, at last, it bore down straight upon the midshipmen.

Darrin, Dalzell and Hallam now came very near to closing their eyes, to
lessen the suspense.

A short time more and all three were dragged in over the sides of the
launch.

"Get those life buoys in, if you can," begged Dave, as he sank in the
bottom of the launch. "They are United States property entrusted to our
care."

From officer and seamen alike a laugh went up at this request, but the
life buoys were caught with a boathook and drawn aboard.

What rousing cheers greeted the returning launch, from the decks of the
liner, "Princess Irene"! When the three midshipmen reached deck and it
was learned that they were midshipmen of the United States Navy, the
cheering and interest were redoubled.

But the captain and the ship's doctor cut short any attempt at lionizing
by rushing the midshipmen to a stateroom containing three berths. Here,
under the doctor's orders, the trio were stripped and rubbed down. Then
they were rolled into blankets, and hot coffee brought to them in their
berths, while their wet clothing was sent below to one of the furnace
rooms for hurried drying.

As soon as the medical man had examined them, the steamship's captain
began to question them.

"Headed for the Azores, eh?" demanded the ship's master. "We ought to be
able to sight your squadron before long."

He hastened out, to give orders to the deck offi