"What about?" "Get off your uniform! Get into pajamas. Then I'll-----" Dave's jaws snapped together resolutely. He did not finish, just then, for he knew that Midshipman Dalzell could be very stubborn at times. "I'll have a light in a jiffy," whispered Dan "I brought back a candle with me." "You won't use it---not in here," retorted Dave. "The dark is light enough for you. Hustle into your pajamas." Perhaps Midshipman Dalzell did not make all the speed that his roommate desired, but at last Dan was safely rid of his uniform, underclothing and shoes, and stood arrayed in pajamas. "Now, I'll hide this doughface over night," whispered Darrin, going toward Dalzell's bed. "At the same time you get the articles of your equipment out from under your bed clothes and hang them up where they belong." "I'll have to light the candle for that," muttered Dan. "If you do, I'll blow it out. There's a regulation against running lights in the rooms after taps." "Do you worship the little blue-covered volume of regulations, Dave?" Dan demanded with a laugh. "No; but I don't propose to take any chances in my last year here. I don't intend to lose my commission in the Navy just because I can't control myself." Dan sniffed, but he silently got his parts of uniform out from between the sheets and hung up the articles where they belonged, in this going by the sense of feeling. Then, all in the dark as they were, Midshipman Dave Darrin seized his chum and roommate by the shoulders. "Danny boy," he commanded firmly, "come over with an account of yourself! Why this mad prank tonight---and what was it?" CHAPTER II SOME ONE PUSHES THE TUNGSTEN You don't have to know every blessed thing that I do, do you?" demanded Dan Dalzell, in an almost offended tone. "No; and I have no right to know anything that you don't tell me willingly. Are you ready to give me any explanation of tonight's foolishness? "Seeing that you kept awake for me, and were on hand to let me in, I suppose I'll have to," grumbled Dan. "Well, then? "Dave, for the first time tonight, I struck my flag." "Struck to whom?" "Oh---a girl, of course," grunted Dan. "You? A girl?" repeated Dave in amazement. "Yes; is it any crime for me to get acquainted with a girl, and to call on her at her home?" "Certainly not. But, Dan, I didn't believe that you ever felt a single flutter of the pulse when girls were around. I thought you were going to grow up into a cheerful, happy old bachelor." "So did I," sighed Dan. "And now you've gone and met your fate?" "I'm not so sure about that," Dalzell retorted moodily. "Do you mean that you don't stand any real show in front of the pair of bright eyes that have made you strike your colors?" "I'm afraid I don't." "Dan, is the game worth the candle," argued Darrin. "You're mightily interested in Belle Meade, aren't you?" "Yes; but that's different, Danny boy." "How is it different, I'd like to know?"