"I did not, sir."
"Did either of you gentlemen recognize the midshipman to whose rescue you rushed?"
Dan and Joyce replied in the negative.
"Tell me the circumstances of the attack, Mr. Darrin. Take pains to make your statement so exact that you will not have to amend the statement afterwards."
Darrin told the affair as it had happened.
"Hm! And none of you recognized the fourth midshipman?" pursued the O.C. "That, in itself, was strange, Mr. Darrin, was there any agreement among you three that you would not recognize your comrade?"
"Not exactly an agreement, sir," Dave confessed candidly. "At the distance that we were from the scene before we rushed in the darkness prevented our seeing the face of the unknown midshipman. As we started forward, I will admit that I warned Mr. Dalzell and Mr. Joyce not to look at the other midshipman's face."
"So that you might answer truthfully, if asked, that you did not know the man?"
"Yes, sir; that was my reason for so advising Mr. Dalzell and Mr. Joyce."
"That was what might be termed extraordinary foresight, Mr. Darrin," remarked Lieutenant-Commander Denham ironically.