coming," Eric retorted, "you
always said you liked machinery. Now I haven't much use for mathematics,
though I don't hate it quite as much as I did, and yet we get enough
coast and geodetic surveying to prepare us for exploring a new world. I
suppose they figure that if the United States ever annexes Mars, a Coast
Guard crew will be put in charge."

"Likely enough," said the other, "but isn't that what you like about
it?"

"Sure, it's great," agreed Eric. "I'm just crazy over the Academy. I
wouldn't be anywhere else in the world. I don't believe there's a
college within a mile of it for real training. There's all the pep to it
that a Naval School has got to have, and although they hold us down so
hard, after all, we get a lot of fun out of it. And take them 'by and
large,' as the shellbacks say, don't you think the Coast Guard crowd is
just about the finest ever?"

"You bet," Homer answered with emphasis. "It was seeing how they handled
things that first headed me for the service. Did I ever tell you what
made me want to join?"

"No," Eric replied, "I don't think you ever did."

"It was in New York," his friend began. "I was there with Father. We
were doing the sights of the town and he took me down with him to the
water-front. He took the occasion to call on the Senior Captain of the
Coast Guard stationed there. They were old cronies.

"While they were talking, there came a 'phone from the Navy Yard. On
account of the Great European War the Coast Guard had undertaken some
special neutrality duty in New York harbor. The Navy had lent a tug for
the purpose. The 'phone message was to say that while the Coast Guard
was perfectly welcome to the tug, on which the patrol was being done,
the tug captain was compulsorily absent in sick bay.

"The lieutenant, who had charge of the patrol,--he didn't look much
older than I do--answered the 'phone. Evidently the admiral in command
of the Brooklyn Navy Yard must have been talking to him, personally,
because I heard his answer,

"'Certainly, Admiral. I shall be able to take her out without the master
on board. As far as that goes, sir,' he added with an earnest laugh in
his voice, 'I think I could take out anything you've got, from a
first-class battleship down!'"

"That was going some!" exclaimed Eric.

"Wasn't it? But the joke of it was that the Admiral, not knowing that
the Senior Captain had been in the office all the while, called him up
and told him the story, end