"Because, sir, the fellow had grossly insulted a young lady whom I felt bound to avenge."
"Who is the young lady?"
"Am I obliged, sir, to give her name in the matter?"
"It will be better, Mr. Totten. You may be sure that your statement will be treated with all the consideration and confidence possible."
Totten thereupon explained that the young woman in question was his cousin. Totten, who was an orphan, had been brought up by an aunt who had but one child of her own, the young woman in question. When Totten had won an appointment to the Naval Academy, the aunt and cousin had decided to move to Annapolis sooner than have their little family broken up.
"How did you come to be outside the Academy grounds last evening, Mr.
Totten? You were not on leave to go outside."
"I took the chances and Frenched it, sir," confessed Totten candidly. "I knew that I could not get leave, and so did not ask it. But I felt that the fellow had to be punished, no matter at what hazard to myself."
"Then you considered the avenging of the insult to your cousin as being a matter of greater importance than your future career in the Navy?"
Midshipman Totten paled, but he answered bravely:
"Yes, sir; and at the same time a Naval career means nearly everything in the world to me."