. Dave named the place, but requested
the chief to wait a full hour before taking any action.

"That will give us a chance to get out a comrade who may have committed
only his first offense," Dave continued.

"If there's any opium being smoked in that place I'll surely close the
joint out!" replied the chief, bringing his fist down upon his desk.
"But I understand your reasons, Mr.--"

"Darrin is my name, sir," replied Dave quietly.

"So, Mr. Darrin, I give you my word that I won't even start my
investigations before this evening. And I'll keep all quiet about the
midshipman end of it."

"Thank you very much, sir," said Dave gratefully.

As the two midshipmen strolled slowly back in the direction of Chow
Hop's, Dave murmured:

"Now, you see why I took this step?"

"I'm afraid not very clearly," replied Midshipman Hallam.

"That scoundrelly Chow made his boast that other midshipmen patronized
his place. I don't believe it. Such a vice wouldn't appeal to you, and
it doesn't to me. But there are more than two hundred new plebes coming
in just now, and many of these boys have never been away from home
before. Some of them might foolishly seek the lure of a new vice, and
might find the habit fastened on them before they were aware of it.
Chow's vile den might spoil some good material for the quarter-deck,
and, as a matter of midshipman honor, we're bound to see that the place
is cleaned out right away."

"I guess, Darry, you come pretty near being right," assented Hallam,
after thinking for a few moments.

By the time they reached Chow Hop's again they found that Dr. Lawrence
had brought the unfortunate Pennington to. And a very scared and
humiliated midshipman it was who now stood up, a bit unsteadily, and
tried to smooth down his uniform.

"How do you feel now?" asked Dave.

"Awful!" shuddered Pennington. "And now see here, what are you fellows
going to do? Blab, and see me driven out of the Navy?"

"Don't do any talking in here," advised Dave, with a meaning look over
his shoulder at the yellow men in the outer room. "Doctor, is our friend
in shape to walk along with us now?"

"He will be, in two or three minutes, after he drinks something I'm
going to give him," replied the medical man, shaking a few drops from
each of three vials into a glass of water. "Here, young man, drink this
slowly."

Three minutes later the midshipmen left the place, Dave walking beside
Pennington and holding his arm lightly