hough
some reflected light came from an incandescent light at a distance.

Dave waited, to peer into the face of the man who had stepped on his
shoulder.

It was Pennington, of course!

"I'll take pains not to go down ahead of you again, or to follow you up
a ladder," grunted Darrin suspiciously.

"Oh, are you the man on whose shoulder my foot rested?" asked
Pennington, with apparent curiosity.

"Didn't you know it!" questioned Darrin, looking straight into the
other's eyes.

Instead of answering intelligibly, Pennington turned and walked away a
few feet.

"Perhaps that fellow thinks he's going to vent his spite on me in a lot
of petty ways," murmured Dave. "If that is the idea he has in his head,
he's going to wake up one of these days!"

Following the last midshipman came Lieutenant-Commander Forman.

"After me, gentlemen," directed the chief engineer. He turned down a
narrow passage, only a few feet long, and came out in the furnace room.

Here huge fires glowed through the furnace doors. Four of the Navy's
firemen stood resting on their shovels. Instantly, on perceiving the
chief engineer, however, the men stood at attention.

"Pass the word for the chief water tender," ordered the engineer,
turning to one of the firemen.

The messenger soon came back with a pleasant-faced, stalwart man of
forty.

"Heistand," ordered the chief engineer, "give these members of the first
section, third: class, steam instruction, a thorough drill in firing."

"Aye, aye, sir," replied the chief water tender, saluting.

"Heistand's orders are mine, Mr. Dalzell," continued the
lieutenant-commander, facing Dan. "Preserve order in your section."

"Aye, aye, sir," replied Dan, saluting. Acknowledging this courtesy in
kind, the chief engineer turned and left the furnace room.

Heistand was presumably of German parentage, though he had no accent. He
struck the midshipmen as being a pleasant, wholesome fellow, though the
water tenders and firemen of the "Massachusetts" knew that he could be
extremely strict and grim at need.

"You will now, young gentlemen," began Heistand, "proceed to learn all
about priming a furnace, lighting, building, cleaning and generally
taking care of a fire. Two furnaces have been left idle for this
instruction."

But two of the regular firemen now remained in the room. These were
ordered to hustle out coal before boilers B and D. Then Heistand taught
the members of the section how to swing a