Bollup looked from one to the other and then gave a short, merry laugh, and said: “All right, sis, I won’t.”
CHAPTER XXIX
“Turn Out On This Floor. Turn Out, Turn Out”
It is October first, and once more are exchanged joyous greetings among several hundred young men at Annapolis; fresh from a happy vacation they hurl at one another warm welcomes. It was an enthusiastic breaking up and departure a month ago but it is none the less a joyful, eager return, for the hearts of midshipmen, their interests, their ambitions, are always centered at the Naval Academy. We see the same young faces of our familiar acquaintances, yet in their spirit is detected a difference. There is always evident in the bearing of the senior class a conscious superiority; and even the clean sleevers, little though their own authority be, feel they belong to the governing class and take pride in the thought. In front of the center of the battalion, facing it as it has assembled in ranks, proud of the honor that has come to him and tremendously conscious of the four golden stripes that brilliantly adorn each sleeve, stood Bollup. A few paces before him stands another well-known friend, Himski, in the act of saluting and reporting:—“Sir, the battalion is formed.” In front of each company of midshipmen are stalwart, erect young men in whom it is hard to recognize the slouchy gawky plebes of three years before. And in an unimportant place in ranks, with no authority, stands the number one man of his class, Ralph Osborn.
There was no bitterness in Ralph’s mind that he should have been so signally left out when the class honors were distributed; he was thankful enough to be in the dark blue uniform, clean though his sleeves were of any ornaments; but it must be admitted that he took much satisfaction in knowing that, though now far down in authority in his class, this would be but temporary; that after graduation and thereafter as long as he was in the Navy he would always have rank in his own class and authority in accordance with his class standing. He would always be the first of his class on the Navy list, would always be the first of his class to be promoted to the higher naval ranks. In but a few months he would be senior to Bollup, Himski and all of the rest. And so Ralph was entirely content.
As battalion commander, Bollup made a noble figure and all of the new cadet officers attacked their responsible duties with genuine desire to excel.
Till toward the end there is but little to tell of Ralph’s first class year. Though he did not take part himself, he enjoyed the football games in which the Academy played a successful season. In Philadelphia from the bleachers he saw Bollup make that wonderful run, dodging, twisting, squirming and diving through eleven West Point players, bringing victory in place of what had seemed certain defeat for Annapolis. Indescribable was the pent-up, agonized joy that surged through Ralph’s mind at this moment, and equally so of the craze that swept the midshipmen to a howling, delirious happiness.
This year there happened to Ralph no untoward incident; no more plots were planned against his peace of mind and good reputation. In truth nothing could have induced Creelton to have made further efforts, for if there was one person Creelton feared, it was Ralph. He knew Ralph was certain of his guilt and rejoiced that no tangible evidence of it had been found out. So he had no higher ambition than to leave Ralph entirely alone. But Creelton could not restrain his predilection for stealing. He was a degenerate, of bright mentality to be sure, but utterly unable to control himself. He was keen to take no chances and though at times articles would disappear, he was never detected. Ralph’s class became uneasy; that there was a thief in the class was a matter quietly believed by many, and when at times it was discussed in Ralph’s presence he would always say: “Creelton’s the thief.” Except perhaps by Bollup and Himski no one could believe that Creelton was a thief, and Himski cautioned Ralph to make no such charges for he had no evidence and could not prove them.
It is in the constantly recurring formations and drills that the cadet officers at Annapolis exercise their authority. In these Ralph, being a “clean sleever,” took his place in ranks at formation, shouldered a gun in infantry, manned the drag rope in artillery, and pulled on ropes in seamanship drills. And in it all he was perfectly happy. Though in these drills he was not to be heard shouting orders nor seen proudly carrying a sword in front of a company of midshipmen, yet he had his triumphs, and in these his soul was deeply satisfied; for at the end of each month when the marks for departments were published, the name of Osborn led the first class in seamanship and in navigation, in gunnery, electricity and steam engineering. Before the middle of the first class year it was certain beyond all doubt that Ralph would be graduated at the head of his class on final average, and as such, despite his being a “clean sleever,” he was a marked man.
To Ralph, though he loved him as a brother, Bollup was a great disappointment as cadet lieutenant-commander. The latter was immensely popular with the battalion of midshipmen and with the families of officers stationed at Annapolis. In this high position Bollup had little if any ambition other than to gratify and further his social pleasures. When at Hampden Grove he had so impulsively told of the good times he anticipated his four stripes would bring him he had expressed his natural characteristics. As the highest ranking midshipman in the Academy it was to have been expected that Bollup would exert all of the penetrating influence of his rank upon the other cadet officers, would constantly have kept them spurred up to a high sense of duty. But Bollup wanted fun more than anything else and as a natural result did not spend much time thinking of his really important responsibilities. It was but natural that the standard of duty which at this epoch existed in the battalion was not of a very high order as midshipmen battalions go.