An hour slipped by without interruption. An occasional burst of laughter floated down the corridor. At some distance away, on the same deck of barracks in Bancroft Hall, a midshipman was industriously twanging away on a banjo. Darrin, however, absorbed in his novel, paid no heed to any of the signs of Saturday-night jollity. He was a third of the way through an exciting tale when there came a knock on the door---a moment later a head was thrust in. Midshipman Farley's head was thrust inside. "All alone, Darry?" called Mr. Farley. "Yes," Dave answered, laying his novel aside after having thrust an envelope between pages to hold the place. "Come in, Farl." "Where's Dalzell?" inquired Farley, after having closed the door behind him. "Until this moment I thought that he was in your room." "I haven't seen him all evening," Farley responded. "Page and I have been yawning ourselves to death." "Danny boy is visiting some other crowd, then," guessed Darrin. "He will probably be along soon. Did you want to see him about anything in particular?" "Oh, no. I came here to escape being bored to death by Page, and poor old Pagey has just fled to Wilson's room to escape being bored by me. What are these Saturday evenings for, anyway, when there's no way of spending them agreeably?" "For a good many of the men, who want to get through," smiled Dave, "Saturday evening is a heaven-sent chance to do a little more studying against a blue next week. As for Danny boy, I imagine he must have carried his grin up to Wilson's room. Or, maybe, to Jetson's. Danny has plenty of harbors where he's welcome to cast his anchor." "May I sit down?" queried Mr. Farley. "Surely, Furl, and with my heartiest apologies for having been too dull to push a chair toward you." "I can easily help myself," laughed the other midshipman, "since there's only one other chair in the room." "What have you and Page been talking about tonight?" asked Dave. "Why do you want to know?" "So that I won't run the risk of boring you by talking oh the same subject." "Well," confessed Midshipman Farley, "we've been talking about this season's football." "Oh, dear!" sighed Darrin. "That's the only topic really worth talking about." "Speaking of football," resumed Farley, "don't you believe that we have a stronger eleven than we had last year!" "If we haven't we ought to walk the plank," retorted Dave. "You remember how the Army walloped us last year?" "That was because the Army team had Prescott and Holmes on it," rejoined Farley quickly. "Well, they'll have 'em this year, too, won't they? "So Prescott and Holmes are to be out for the Army this year!" "I haven't heard anything definite on that head," Dave answered. "But I take it as a matter of course that Prescott and Holmes will play once more with the Army. They're West Point men, and they know their duty."