He stooped and picked it up, looking rather sheepish and foolish as he encountered Ned's smile.
"You see, it isn't a good plan to go up in the air before you make quite sure you won't have to come down again with a hard bump," said the Dreadnought Boy quietly, but with a good-natured intonation.
"Aw, stow that," growled the other. "I didn't do no harm."
"No, but if I hadn't been a young person of marked coolness and restraint, I might have done you some," grinned Herc.
Here the incident appeared to be terminated for the time being. Soon after, the disgruntled neighbor of Herc Taylor arose and sought a seat in another part of the car. The smiling looks of the passengers in the vicinity of the little ruction had proved too much for his sensibilities.
As he rose from his seat, he carried with him his suit-case. After he was beyond ear-shot, Ned turned to Herc.
"That fellow may be one of our shipmates," he said in low tones.
"How do you make that out?"
"I saw the name 'Dilworth Rankin' and the letters 'U.S.N.' after it," was Ned's rejoinder.
"Can't say that I'm much impressed with what I've seen of young Mr. Rankin," retorted Herc, carelessly. "At any rate we are under special commissions now, so that if he gets gay or anything like that, I'll have him put in the brig in short order. I always said, after I had that little session of mine in the brig, that if I ever got a chance I'd see how it felt to slap somebody else in there; and if he gets fresh it might just as well be Rankin as anyone else."