“I’m having a bully time, Os, Os, Os, Os, you good old Os, the bulliest time a midshipman ever had, had, had. And I’m going out to dinner with my chums. I’ve permission to fall out after formation.”
The bugle call now sounded for formation and all midshipmen fell into ranks, and all talking stopped. Fear gripped Ralph’s heart; he did not know what might happen to Bollup, and he himself was powerless to avert the evil.
After supper he hung around Maryland Avenue gate, questioning different midshipmen returning from liberty if they had seen or heard anything of Bollup.
“Why, yes,” at last said a third classman, “I heard Bollup had been taken sick, and was left at the Maryland Hotel by some New York friends of his who have just left town,” and the third classman smiled knowingly at Ralph.
Ralph was now desperate. Bollup was probably unable to take care of himself; perhaps he was in a deep sleep. He would be reported at ten o’clock taps inspection for being out of his room and it was absolutely certain that discovery of his condition would result. This meant but one thing—Bollup’s dismissal from the Academy. And in Ralph’s mind rose a picture of the grief and shame that would assail the dear family in Hampden Grove, and of the blasting of his best friend’s career. It was now nearly nine o’clock. These thoughts crowded through Ralph’s mind, and willing to sacrifice almost anything for Bollup, he shot through the gate and ran down Maryland Avenue.
“Hold on, Osborn, you’re on the second conduct grade; you can’t go out,” called out the midshipman officer of the day at the gate. But Ralph heeded him not and ran on. He well knew he would be reported for “absenting himself from academic limits without authority”; “but I can better take fifty demerits and a month’s restriction than have Bollup bilged,” he said to himself. At the corner of Prince George Street he met the man he most wanted to see, his roommate Himski. In a few excited sentences he explained the state of affairs to him, and both hurried to the hotel. Ralph here learned the number of the room Bollup was in, and after ordering a closed carriage found Bollup who was in a very sad condition. Himski and Ralph in the meantime had decided upon a plan and lost no time. They hustled their insensible classmate into the carriage and quickly drove to Boucher’s boat house. Here they hired a rowboat, deposited Bollup in it, and then each took a pair of oars, the boatman steering, and vigorously pulled around the city front to the Academy sea-wall.
They hurried Bollup, half supporting him, over the grounds and got into main quarters and into his room unperceived; undressed him and put him to bed, finishing this at “warning bell,” five minutes before ten. Himski and Ralph then rushed to their own room.
“You have certainly saved Bollup from dismissal, Os,” remarked Himski, after taps inspection had been made. “He would have been reported absent from quarters to-night, an investigation would have followed and nothing could have saved him. By the way, you had to take French leave, didn’t you? I hope you’re not spotted for that, old chap.”
“But I am, Himski; Coleman was on duty at the gate and called to me as I went through. He’ll report me all right. But I could better take fifty demerits and restriction than have good old Bollup bilge.”
“Certainly, I would have done the same thing; a man must sacrifice something for his friends.”