"You'd be recognized at the theatre and spotted, and you'd be missed at taps inspection; you had better not try it," was the reply.
"I guess you're right," grumbled Harry, "but I've a pretty good trick up my sleeve, and I may work it."
Later, when the first classmen were all gone and the corridors were deserted, Third Classman Blunt might have been seen to slip into room number 23, the divisional officers' room. And in a few minutes he came out looking perplexed and worried.
The Colonial Theatre was a gay sight that Saturday night. All of society Annapolis was present, the ladies beautifully gowned, and the men in correct evening dress. Annapolis prides itself on being as strict in such matters as Newport. Interspersed throughout the audience were to be seen many navy uniforms; and well toward the front and centre, in seats reserved for them, were seated as fine a body of young men as had ever been brought together, the senior class of midshipmen.
It seemed more like a friendly party than an ordinary audience, for everybody knew everybody else, and before the curtain rose there were innumerable greetings and much pleasant talk.
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.