At last, however, Eph was obliged to call for Hal.
"You know, Hal, old fellow, I've got to look out for the feeding of a lot of boarders to-day," complained Eph, whimsically.
This task of Eph's took time, though it was not a hard one. The food for the cadets had been sent aboard. Eph had to make coffee and heat soup. For the rest, cold food had to do. The young men, on this trip, were required to wait on themselves.
Hal found Sam Truax sitting moodily in a corner of the engine room, though there was something about the fellow's appearance that suggested the watchfulness of a cat.
"Why don't you go on deck a while, Truax?" asked Hal, kindly.
"Don't want to," snapped the fellow, irritably. So Hal turned his back on the man.
"Doesn't that part need loosening up a bit, sir?" asked the cadet in charge of the engineer division.
"Yes," replied Hastings, after watching a moment; "it does."
"I'll do it, then," proposed Truax, roughly. He attempted to crowd his way past Hal, but the latter refused to be crowded, and stood his ground until the midshipman passed him a wrench. Then Hastings loosened up the part.
"You might let me do a little something," growled Sam Truax, in a tone intentionally offensive.