Dan made a dignified salute, and walked away with his shoulders a little more erect than usual. But the moment he was sure he had gotten out of sight of the officer, he started off on a run to carry the good news to Sam Hickey. Sam was not over enthusiastic. He was still grumbling over the loss of the tompion, which meant also the loss of twenty-five dollars to himself.
Within the hour he had handed in the list of names of the men chosen for signal duty. This list was approved by the executive officer and the captain, and that afternoon Dan assembled his class on the forward deck for their first lesson. Not a man of them had ever before had signal instruction.
In military formation the Battleship Boy marched his class up and out to the forward deck.
"Halt!" he commanded. "Left face! Right dress! Front!"
"Coates, that was pretty well done, eh?" chuckled the captain, who, with his executive officer, was leaning over the bridge railing, watching the proceedings.
"Open order, march!"
The men of the class spread out so that there was plenty of open space in front of each man.
The Battleship Boy gave the men a brief talk on the general subject of signaling, impressing upon them the need of accuracy.
"Do not try to be fast. Speed will come in good time, but make it your ambition both to send and to read messages with absolute accuracy. We will now begin with the code, which is as follows:"
Davis ran through the code, signaling out each letter slowly in order to show the men how the movements were executed.