CHAPTER IX.
SIGHTS IN ST. PETERSBURG.
"Appointed by the captain!" sneered De Forrest, as the students left the steerage.
"I wonder what that's for," added Beckwith.
"I don't know; it's a puzzler to me. But the principal seems to be trying to make Cantwell as big a man as he can."
"Well, I don't think you ought to find any fault about it. You worked this thing up, and made him captain," interposed Sheridan, the new fourth lieutenant, who had been raised to his present rank from first midshipman, by the votes of the Bangwhangers.
"I made him captain!" exclaimed De Forrest.
"Certainly you did; his merit-rank would only have made him fourth lieutenant. We don't always do just what we intend," laughed Sheridan. "It was your idea to make the captain dependent upon the crew for his office."
"I think it's a good thing to do so," replied De Forrest.