"Huh! Just as if you were any more used to carrying a sticker,—I mean a sword,—than I am! I'll be all right. Don't you worry about me, Mister Lieutenant. I bet I will be just as good an officer as there is in the navy."
"We'll wait and see——" began Ned good-naturedly, when Herc cut him short with an exclamation.
"Look who's here! Right behind us!"
"Well, what is it?" asked Ned, for he was half-way up the steps by this time and the drooping eyes of the landlord, as Ned had rightly conjectured that the dejected man was, were regarding him with languid interest.
"It's that Rankin fellow! He's looking at us disrespectfully. I've a good mind to tell him that we are officers!"
"You'll do no such thing. If he has been detailed to the Seneca, which I think probable, he'll find out our rank for himself soon enough."
"Just the same, I'd like to make him salute me," grumbled Herc.
Rankin ascended the steps behind the two Dreadnought Boys. He was close on their heels, when suddenly Herc's feet flew up and out behind him. In his new dignity he had been holding his head so high that he did not notice a bit of banana peel lying on the untidy steps of the Eagle Hotel.
Crash! The newly created officer performed an almost complete back somersault with great effect. Plump! came down his not over-light form right on top of the ascending Rankin. Together they rolled down the steps and into the dusty road, while Ned looked on in dismay.
"You done that a-purpose! I'll fix you for it!" bellowed Rankin furiously.