They had walked a couple of blocks of the way when Hal suddenly felt the stamped letter in his pocket. He drew it out, and glanced hurriedly down the avenue.
"I don't see a letter-box ahead, fellows, but I saw one, half-way down the block, at the last corner we passed. You two keep right on. I'll join you."
Presently Jack and Eph halted in their walk to look back.
"Where is Hal?" demanded Somers.
"He can't have lost us," muttered Jack.
"Oh, I guess he has simply taken a short cut to meet us ahead on the way."
Yet, though they continued to look for their comrade until they had neared the State, War and Navy Building, Hal Hastings had not again appeared in sight.
"Say, but this is fearfully careless of good old Hal," muttered Jack Benson, uneasily, as he glanced at his watch. "We've no time to go back to look for him, either, for we've barely time to reach the Secretary's office."
"We'll have to go in without Hal, then," grumbled Eph. "It makes me feel like a fool, too!"
Had the two lads but known it, there was still plenty of time. For the Secretary of the Navy may make an appointment with an understrapper, and then find that he must first see some more important personage.