“Didn’t you ever hear that the crew always knows the important things before the officers on a sub?” Scott said with a laugh.
“It must be, it must be,” March replied, with a shake of his head.
When Larry Gray returned from seeing the Commandant, March thought he noticed a sparkle in his eyes and a smile on his face that he was trying not to show.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Oh, nothing,” Larry replied, looking a little embarrassed. “I just reported and he said okay. Everything set for dawn?”
“Everything set,” March replied.
“Oh, by the way,” Larry said, as if trying to change the subject. “You move your stuff into Ray’s quarters. Then you and Stan can both have a little more room to move around in.”
“Okay, Skipper,” March answered. “Could we see Ray before we leave?”
“No, no more visitors,” Larry said. “His family is there, and they let me see him for a minute to say goodbye and good luck from all of us. He’s feeling pretty lousy with drainage tubes in him, and worse than that because he can’t go along with us. If they’d let him, he’d try to get up and come along right now. He says he could recuperate faster in a sub, anyway, than on dry land. He highly approved of your appointment, by the way.”
It was an hour later that March learned the reason for the Skipper’s hidden smile and slightly embarrassed look. Noticing a new large sheet of paper on the bulletin board in the crew’s quarters he paused to look at it.