“I sorry I knock your cap into water,” he said, quietly. “I get you one for it. But I no let you hit me.”
Judson struggled wildly but he was simply a child in the Jap’s grasp. Chris Spendly stepped forward to interfere, but Joy confronted him with such a menacing gesture that he discreetly withdrew.
Clif and the others hurried across the deck, as did a cadet officer who had espied the conflict from afar.
“What’s up?” asked Clif, endeavoring to separate the two combatants.
“He knocked my——” began Greene, then he added, sullenly: “None of your confounded business, Clif Faraday! What right have you to interfere?”
Clif laughed.
“Still as sweet as ever, I see, Greene,” he replied, coolly. “Got the same angelic temper.”
“Here, what’s this row?” demanded the cadet officer, arriving breathlessly on the scene. “Fighting, eh? That means the mast to-morrow morning.”
He produced a book from his blouse and read aloud as he noted:
“On board U. S. S. Monongahela, at sea, June 22d. Fourth class cadets, Judson Greene and Motohiki Asaki, fighting on forecastle. Cadet Greene without cap and evidently the aggressor.”