“I do not know, sir.”
“The garment has plainly been inked. How does it happen that you did not notice this when you put on your uniform?”
“We dressed in a great hurry, sir,” spoke up Dan. “As you will observe, it is quite dark in here. It seems as if we ought to have noticed that something was wrong, but we did not.”
Lieutenant Commander Devall pondered for a moment.
“You have no idea who could have done this thing, men?”
They did not answer.
“Search the quarters, quartermaster.”
The lads stood looking on with troubled faces as the petty officer began his search. The Battleship Boys did not know what the lieutenant commander expected to find, and as a matter of fact he probably had no definite idea himself.
Sam moved over to where his bag stood, having observed that it was open. As he drew the cord down tightly he chanced to glance at the bag standing beside it. Hickey uttered a smothered exclamation. What he had seen was a smear of red at the mouth of the canvas bag.
“May I open this bag, sir?” he asked, saluting.