Dan had not seen the "accident," but he was near enough to hear the talking, and he caught Dave at it. So Dan ordered, impartially:
"Mr. Darrin, you will place yourself on report for unauthorized talking in section!"
Dave flushed still more hotly, but said nothing.
Midshipman Dalzell now marched the section from the furnace room, and dismissed it. It was near noon, and would soon be time for the middies to eat.
Dave hurried away, washed, changed his uniform, and then stepped away swiftly to place himself on the report.
"I was sorry to do that, old chum," murmured Dan, as he met Dave returning. "But of course I couldn't play favorites. What made you so far forget yourself?"
"A something that would have had the same effect on you," retorted Dave grimly. Thereupon he described Pennington's two underhanded assaults that morning.
"Humph!" muttered Dalzell. "That fellow Pen is bound to go the whole limit with you."
"He won't go much further," declared Dave, his eyes flashing.
"And the chump ought to know it, too," mused Dan. "The class history of the last year should have taught him that. But see here, Dave, I don't believe Pen will do anything openly. He will construct a series of plausible accidents."