“I’d go anywhere with them myself,” said Sutherland. “Why do we have to be so old, Skipper?”
“Didn’t you have enough action in the last war?” the Captain asked.
“No, sir, and neither did you!”
“Well, men like Anson and Bigelow will have to do it for us this time, I guess,” the Captain said. “And I suppose we’re doing an important job if we help at all to make them such good pigboat officers.”
“They’re ready to be assigned now, don’t you think?” Sutherland asked.
“Yes, without a doubt. They can’t learn any more except through actual experience. They might as well start getting it right away.”
March and Stan felt sure that their training was coming to an end. So far as classes were concerned, they knew that they had covered just about all the work that the school had to give them. They had studied so hard that they felt mentally exhausted.
“I don’t think I could cram one more fact into my head,” Stan said. “It’s going to take some time for the facts I’ve been putting in there to assemble themselves and settle down in some orderly fashion.”
“We’ll be leaving before long,” March said. “But there’s one thing I want to do before I leave. I want to see Winnie and Minnie.”
“Oh—in the escape tower?” Stan exclaimed. “Of course—we’ve never made the hundred-foot escape.”