"
"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.
There were "big" callers ahead of the boys that day, so that it was
nearly two o'clock when Lieutenant Jack and Ensign Eph were admitted to
the presence that they were to leave shorn of their brief rank and
command.
"Good afternoon, Lieutenant Benson. Good afternoon, Mr. Somers," was
Secretary Sanders's swift greeting. "You were most successful, and I
must congratulate you heartily. But--where is Mr. Hastings?"
"We don't know, Mr. Secretary," Jack admitted. "He left us for a short
time, as we thought, and, since then--"
Mr. Sanders wheeled sharply as the door opened and a clerk came in.
"Pardon me, sir," apologized the clerk. "But a note has just come for
Lieutenant Benson, sir, and the messenger was insistent that it was a
most important matter--"
"You may take your note and read it, Lieutenant," suggested the Secretary
of the Navy.
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