The Submarine Boys and the Middies Part 19

And now the cadets broke into a low, monotonous chant, in time to their movements. It ran:

Sir, sir, surcingle!

Sir, sir, circle!

Sir, sir, with a s.h.i.+ngle- Sir, sir, sir!

As regular as drumbeats the cadets ripped out the syllables of the refrain. At each word Jack Benson's body shot higher and higher. These young men were experts in the gentle art of blanket-tossing. Ere long the submarine boy was going up into the air some eight or nine feet at every tautening of the blanket.

As for escape, that was out of the question. No sooner did the submarine boy touch the blanket than he shot skyward again. Had he desired to he could not have called out. The motion and the sudden jolts shook all the breath out of him.

"Ugh! Hm! Pleasant, isn't it?" uttered Hal Hastings, grimly, under his breath.

"If they try to do that to me," whispered Eph, hotly, under his breath, "I'll fight."

"More simpleton you, then!" Hal shot back at him in warning. "What chance do you think you stand against a crowd like this?"

Just as suddenly as it had begun the blanket-tossing stopped. Yet, hardly had Jack been allowed to step out than Hal Hastings was unceremoniously dropped athwart the blanket. The tossing began again, to the chant of:

Sir, sir, surcingle!

Sir, sir, circle!

Right plentifully were these cadet mids.h.i.+pmen avenging themselves for having had to say "sir" to these young submarine boys that day.

"Woof!" breathed Jack, as soon as breath entered his body again. Eph clenched his fists tightly, as Hal continued to go higher and higher. But at last Hastings's ordeal was over.

"I suppose they'll try that on me!" gritted Eph Somers to himself. "If they do-"

That was far as he got, for Eph was suddenly flung upon the blanket.

Sir, sir, surcingle!

Then how Eph _did_ go up and down! It was as though these cadet mids.h.i.+pmen knew that it would make Eph mad, madder, maddest! These budding young naval officers fairly bent to their work, tautening and loosening on the blanket until their muscles fairly ached.

It was lofty aerial work that Eph Somers was doing. Up and up-higher and higher! Without the need of any effort on his own part young Somers was now traveling upward at the rate of ten or eleven feet at every punctuated bound.

Then, suddenly, there came a sound that chilled the blood of every young cadet mids.h.i.+pman hazer present.

"_Halt!_ Where you are!"

Under the shadow of the barracks building a naval officer had appeared. He now came forward, a frown on his face, eyeing the culprits.

It is no merry jest for cadet mids.h.i.+pmen to be caught at hazing! And here were some thirty of them-red-handed!

CHAPTER XII: JACK BENSON, EXPERT EXPLAINER

At the first word of command from the officer several of the cadet mids.h.i.+pmen who were near enough to an open doorway vanished through it.

As the officer strode through the group of startled young men a few more, left behind his back, made a silent disappearance.

There were left, however, as the officer looked about him, sixteen of the young men, all too plainly headed and led by Cadet Mids.h.i.+pman Merriam.

"Young gentlemen," said the officer, severely, "I regret to find so many of you engaged in hazing. It is doubly bad when your victims are men outside the corps. And, if I mistake not, these young gentlemen are here as temporary civilian instructors in submarine work."

Mr. Merriam and his comrades made no reply in words. Nor did their faces express much. They stood at attention, looking stolidly ahead of them, though their faces were turned toward the officer. It was not the place of any of them to speak unless the officer asked questions.

Severe as the hazing had been, however, Jack and Hal, at least, had taken it all in good part. Nor was Jack bound by any of the rules of etiquette that prevented the cadets from speaking.

"May I offer a word, sir?" asked Jack, wheeling upon the officer.

"You were one of the victims of a hazing, were you not?" demanded the officer, regarding Jack, keenly.

"Why, could you call it that, sir?" asked Jack, a look of innocent surprise settling on his face. "We called it a demonstration-an explanation."

"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 good-natured, 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 mids.h.i.+pmen 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.

"Surely," murmured Hal.

"You, Mr. Somers?"

"I-I haven't had so much fun since the gasoline engine blew up," protested Eph.

"We entered most heartily into the spirit of the thing," Jack hastened on to say, "and feel that we owe the deepest thanks to these young gentlemen of the Navy. Yet, if our desire to know more about the life-that is, the former life-of the Academy is to result in getting our entertainers into any trouble, we shall never cease regretting our unfortunate curiosity."

For some moments the naval officer regarded the three submarine boys, solemnly, in turn. From them he turned to look over the cadet mids.h.i.+pmen.