But to the "costume de rigeur" so faithfully observed by the Annapolitans, there was one exception. In a back seat of a box, on the right of the stage (a public box where seats were sold separately) sat a man dressed in defiance of social custom. He was simply clothed in a sack coat, and trousers of dark material. He wore a heavy moustache and full pointed beard. However, he didn't seem to know anybody and none appeared to notice him or worry over his unconventional attire. Penfield had an appreciative audience that night. Never had anything so fine been given at Annapolis, and enthusiastic delight was repeatedly expressed. At twenty minutes before ten the bearded man in the box suddenly left and once outside of the theatre he started at a dead run toward the Academy grounds. A convenient negro made twenty-five cents by boosting him over the wall. The bearded man rushed on the Chesapeake Bay side of the Armory and Bancroft Hall, ran over the terrace, and bolted into the open window of room 23. The five minutes' warning bugle was soon heard, to be followed by the call for taps. And in Bancroft Hall was to be heard the measured tread of the midshipmen on duty making the ten o'clock inspection of rooms. Hardly had this ceased when the bearded man emerged from Bancroft Hall by the same way he had entered it. He was off on a bound and ran through the grounds unobserved. The wall presented no difficulty to him, and he was soon back in his seat in the theatre box. "What luck," he said to himself, with great satisfaction. "I got out in the first place, got back again, was in my bed at taps inspection, and now I'm back here and have missed only a little of the play. And nobody saw me or knows anything about it." The play proceeded. At a little before eleven, near the end, while some scenery was being changed, the manager of the theatre stepped out on the stage and called: "Is Midshipman Stonewell present?" "I am he," replied Stonewell, rising in his seat. "I'm sorry, but the superintendent of the Naval Academy has just telephoned me to have Midshipman Stonewell send in all midshipmen on the run." Before Stonewell had a chance to reply or give an order, and before the look of dismay and disappointment had disappeared from his classmates' faces, everybody in the theatre was startled by a loud cry in harsh, strident tones of: "Midshipmen and everybody else, attention!" An intense breathless stillness followed. Everybody looked to the direction from where the cry had come. There, in the front of the right hand box, stood a tall athletic looking man. Now a brown slouch hat was pulled down on his forehead; his face was covered with a dark beard. He wore a sack coat buttoned tightly over his chest. By this penetrating voice everybody's attention was attracted. An expectant hush fell upon the audience. Every eye was upon the bearded stranger. From the lips of the interrupter came a defiant call of: