"Demonstration? Explanation?" repeated the officer, astonished in his turn. "What do you mean, Mr.—er—"
"Benson," Jack supplied, quietly.
"I think you would better tell me a little more, Mr. Benson," pursued the unknown naval officer.
"Why, it was like this, sir," Jack continued. "My two friends—Hastings and Somers—and myself were talking about the West Point and Annapolis hazings, of which we had heard and read. We were talking about the subject when a cadet came along. I suggested to Somers that we ask the cadet about hazing. Well, sir, to make a long story short, some of the cadets undertook to show us just how hazing is—or used to be—done at Annapolis."
"Oh! Then it was all thoroughly goodnatured, all in the way of a joke, to show you something you wanted to know?" asked the naval officer, slowly.
"That's the way I took it," replied Jack. "So did Hastings and Somers.
We've enjoyed ourselves more than anyone else here has."
This was truth surely enough, for, in the last two minutes, not one of the cadet midshipmen present could have been accused of enjoying himself.
"Then what took place here, Mr. Benson, really took place at your request?" insisted the naval officer.
"It all answered the questions that we had been asking," Jack replied, promptly, though, it must be admitted, rather evasively.
"This is your understanding, too, Mr. Hastings?" demanded the officer.