“Why did he not give you the letters he had for you?”
“What letters?”
“He answered the hail of the officer of the deck with the remark that he had most important letters for you.”
“Indeed! he said nothing to me about them. In truth, that was a mere excuse to get aboard, for he came to borrow money.”
“Ah! he had cheek to come here, and to get any money was worse.”
“You don’t owe him any money, do you, Clemmons?” innocently said one of the cadets.
“Owe him? I only wish I had what he owes me; but he came and asked me for a loan, and I guess he has gone to the bad utterly, for his father has cast him off, he told me.”
“I didn’t see you lend him any.”
“No, and I told him never to cross my path again,” and with this Clemmons returned to his work in the captain’s cabin.
Later a number of midshipmen were given leave ashore, and Scott Clemmons was among them. So, too, were Mark Merrill and Bemis Perry.