ven o'clock; still
daylight, the fag end of a beautiful June day in Maryland.

Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell had been appointed as midshipmen at
the United States Naval Academy. If they should succeed in passing
the four years' course in the big government school at Annapolis,
they would then be sent to sea for two years, as midshipmen, after
which they would return to Annapolis for their final examinations.
Passing these last examinations, they would then be commissioned
as ensigns in the United States Navy, with the possibility of
some day becoming full-fledged admirals.

Readers of our High School Boys Series have no need of further
introduction to Dave and Dan.

These two young men will be remembered as former members of Dick
& Co., six famous chums back in the lively little city of Gridley.

Dick Prescott, Greg Holmes, Dave Darrin, Dan Dalzell, Tom Reade
and Harry Hazleton had composed the famous sextette who, in their
day at Gridley High School, had been fast chums and leaders in
all pertaining to High School athletics in their part of the state.

Following their High School days, however, the six chums had become
somewhat widely scattered. Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes secured
appointments to the United States Military Academy. Readers of
our West Point Series are already familiar with the stirring doings
and life of Dick and Greg at the fine old Army Academy on the
Hudson. At the time this present narrative opens Dick and Greg
had been nearly three months as plebe cadets, as told in the first
volume of the West Point Series, under the title, "DICK PRESCOTT'S
FIRST YEAR AT WEST POINT."

Tom Reade and Harry Hazleton had gone from Gridley High School
to the far West, where they had connected themselves with a firm
of civil engineers engaged in railway construction. What befell
Tom and Harry is told in "THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN COLORADO," the
first and very entertaining volume in the Young Engineers Series.

Readers of "THE HIGH SCHOOL CAPTAIN OF THE TEAM" recall how Dave
Darrin won his appointment to the Naval Academy, as did Dick Prescott
his chance for West Point, from the Congressman of the home district.
Dalzell's appointment, on the other hand, came from one of the
two United States Senators from that state.

And here Dave and Dan were, on a trolley car from Odenton, rapidly
nearing Annapolis.

At the forward end of the car was a small compartment set apart
for the use of smokers Dave and Dan did