“Fill out those applications,” directed the petty officer who had admitted them. “If your answers to the questions are satisfactory you will be asked some further questions; then we shall have you examined.”
Having spent three years in high school, after finishing at the grammar school, the boys found themselves well able to fill out the application blanks without having to ask questions of the quartermaster. This they did with much care, giving such facts about themselves as the application blank demanded.
Sam nudged his companion.
“See that man sitting over there to the left of you?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I think he must be a general or something of the sort.”
“Humph! There’s only one general in the Navy, and he is in the Marine Corps,” answered Dan reprovingly. “I know what that officer is.”
“What is he, then, if you know so much?”
“He is a commander.”
“How do you know?”