“What’s all this row about?” demanded “Gruff” Smith, coming up to the group.
“Oh, this spoon of yours is cheeking me, that’s all,” sneered Coleman.
“Mr. Coleman called me a miserable beast. I told him that as he is a third classman he could run me but that he couldn’t insult me. I told him to take it back, sir.”
“And didn’t he?”
“No, he didn’t,” interrupted Coleman; “and furthermore, he won’t.”
“Well, Mr. Osborn, as a third classman I’ll apologize to you for him. Third classmen run plebes but they don’t insult them. Now see here, Coleman, if you——”
But “Gruff” Smith was interrupted by a loud order from the officer of the deck, of:
“Midshipmen of the watch on the weather sheer poles! Stand by to go over the topmast heads.”
The midshipmen divided themselves on the three sheer poles abreast the foremast, mainmast, and mizzenmast, each braced for a run, eager to be first. On Ralph’s right was a third classman named Richards.
“Now look here, Mr. Plebe; don’t you dare get ahead of me,” he said.