It was too big a puzzle. After thinking it over for some time Dave turned and strolled back to Bancroft Hall.
"You didn't stay out long!" remarked Dan, looking up with a weary smile as his chum re-entered their room.
"No," admitted Dave. "There wasn't much fun in being out alone."
With a sigh, Dan turned back to his book, while Dave seated himself at his own study table, in a brown daze.
Things were happening fast—Dan's impending "bilge" from the Naval Academy, and his own coming fight with the first classman who would be sure to make it a "blood fight"!
CHAPTER XVI
HOW DAN FACED THE BOARD
"We trust, Mr. Dalzell, that you can make some statement or explanation that will show that we shall be justified in retaining you as a midshipman in the Naval Academy."
It was the superintendent of the United States Naval Academy who was speaking.
Dan's hour of great ordeal had come upon him. That young midshipman found himself in the Board Room, facing the entire Academic Board, trying to remember what Freeman had told him the night before.
The time was 10.30 a.m. on that fateful Monday.