DAN HANDS HIMSELF BAD MONEY
As the season went on it was evident that Dave Darrin was slowly
getting back to form.
Yet coach was not wholly satisfied, nor was anyone else who had
the triumph of the Navy eleven at heart.
Three more games had been played, and two of them were won by
the Navy. Next would come Stanford College, a hard lot to beat.
The Navy tried to bolster up its own hopes; a loss to Stanford
would mean the majority of games lost out of the first five.
True, the news from West Point was not wholly disconcerting to
the Navy. The Army that year had some strong players, it was
true; still, the loss of Prescott and Holmes was sorely felt.
Word came, too, in indirect ways, that there was no likelihood
whatever that the Coventry against Cadet Dick Prescott would be
lifted. It was the evident purpose of the Corps of Cadets, for
fancied wrongs, to ostracize Dick Prescott until he found himself
forced to resign from the United States Military Academy.
November came in. Stanford came. Coach talked to Dave Darrin
steadily for ten minutes before the Navy eleven trotted out on
to the field. Stanford left Annapolis with small end of the score,
in a six-to-two game, and the Navy was jubilant.
"Darrin has come back pretty close to his right form," was the
general comment.
For that Saturday evening Dan Dalzell, being now "on privilege"
again, asked and received leave to visit in town---this the more
readily because his work on the team had prevented his going out
of the Yard that afternoon.
Dave, too, requested and secured leave to go into town, though
he stated frankly that he had no visit to make, and wanted only
a stroll away from the Academy grounds.
Darrin went most of the way to the Prestons.
"Come right along through, and meet Miss Preston," urged Dan.
"If you ask it as a favor I will, old chap," Dave replied.
"No; I thought the favor would be to you."
"So it would, ordinarily," Darrin replied gallantly. "But to-night
I just want to stroll by myself."
"Ta-ta, then." The grin on Dan Dalzell's face as he turned away
from his chum was broader than usual. Dan was thinking that,
this time, though his call must be a short one, he would be in
no danger on his return. He could report unconcernedly just before
taps.
"No doughface need apply to-night," chuckled Dan. "But Davy was
surely one awfully good fellow to get me through that other scrape
as he did."
All thought of football fled from Dan Dalzell's brain as he pulled
the bellknob at the Preston house.
After all this was to be but the third meeting. Dan fancied,
however, that absence had made his heart fonder. Since the night
when he had Frenched it over the wall Dan had received two notes
from Miss Preston, in answer to his own letters, but the last
note was now ten days' old.
"May I see Mrs. Preston?" asked Dan, as a colored servant opened
the door and admitted him.
This was Dan's correct idea of the way to call on a young woman
to whom he was not engaged, but half hoped to be, some day.
The colored maid soon came back.
"Mrs. Preston is so very busy, sah, that she asks to be excused,
sah," reported the servant, coming into the parlor where Dan sat
on the edge of a chair. "But Mistah Preston will be down right
away, sah."
A moment later a heavier step was heard on the stairway. Then
May Preston's uncle came into the parlor.
"You will pardon Mrs. Preston not coming down stairs to-night,
I know, Mr. Dalzell," said the man of the house, as he and the
midshipman shook hands. "The truth is, we are very much occupied
to-night."
"I had not dreamed of it, or I would not have called," murmured
Dan reddening. "I trust you will pardon me."
"There is no need of pardon, for you have not offended," smiled
Mr. Preston. "I shall be very glad to spare you half an hour,
if I can interest, you."
"You are very kind, sir," murmured Dan. "And Miss Preston----"
"My niece?"
"Yes, sir."
"It is mainly on my niece's account that we are so busy to-night,"
smiled the host.
"She is not ill, sir?" asked Dan in alarm.
"Ill! Oh, dear me, no!"
Mr. Preston laughed most heartily.
"No; she is not in the least ill, Mr. Dalzell, though, on Monday,
she may feel a bit nervous toward noon,"
"Nervous---on Monday?" asked Dan vaguely. It seemed rank nonsense
that her uncle should be able to predict her condition so definitely
on another day.
"Why, yes; Monday is to be the great day, of course."
"Great day, sir? And why 'of course'?" inquired Dan, now as much
interested as he was mystified.
"Why, my niece is to be married Monday at high noon."
"Married?" gasped Midshipman Dalzell, utterly astounded and discomfited
by such unlooked-for news.
"Yes; didn't you know Miss Preston was engaged to be married?"
"I---I certainly did not," Dan stammered.
"Why, she spoke to you much of 'Oscar'-----"
"Her brother?"
"No; the man who will be her husband on Monday," went on Mr. Preston
blandly. Being quite near-sighted the elder man had not discovered
Dan's sudden emotion. "That is what occupies us to-night. We
leave on the first car for Baltimore in the morning. Mrs. Preston
is now engaged over our trunks."
"I---I am very certain, then, that I have come at an unseasonable
time," Dan answered hastily. "I did not know---which fact, I
trust, will constitute my best apology for having intruded at
such a busy season, Mr. Preston."
"There has been no intrusion, and therefore no apology is needed,
sir," replied Mr. Preston courteously.
Dan got out, somehow, without staggering, or without having his
voice quiver.
Once in the street he started along blindly, his fists clenched.
"So that's the way she uses me, is it?" he demanded of himself
savagely. "Plays with me, while all the time the day for her
wedding draws near. She must be laughing heartily over---my greenness!
Oh, confound all girls, anyway!"
It was seldom that Midshipman Dalzell allowed himself to get in
a temper. He had been through many a midshipman fight without
having had his ugliness aroused. But just now Dan felt humiliated,
sore in spirit and angry all over---especially with all members
of the gentler sex.
He even fancied that Mr. Preston was at that moment engaged in
laughing over the verdant midshipman. As a matter of fact, Mr.
Preston was doing nothing of the sort. Mr. Preston had not supposed
that Dan's former call had been intended as anything more than
a pleasant social diversion. The Prestons supposed that every
one knew that their niece was betrothed to an excellent young
fellow. So, at this particular moment, Mr. Preston was engaged
in sitting on a trunk, while his wife tried to turn the key in
the lock. Neither of them was favoring Midshipman Dalzell with
as much as a thought.
"Why on earth is it that all girls are so tricky?" Dan asked himself
savagely, taking it for granted that all girls are "tricky" where
admirers are concerned.
"Oh, my, what a laugh Davy will have over me, when he hears!" was
Dan's next bitter thought, as he strode along.
Having just wronged all girls in his own estimation of them, Dan
was now proceeding to do his own closest chum an injustice. For
Dave Darrin was too thorough a gentleman to laugh over any unfortunate's
discomfiture.
"What a lucky escape I had from getting better acquainted with
that girl!" was Dalzell's next thought. "Why, with one as wholly
deceitful as she is there can be no telling where it would all have
ended. She might have drawn me into troubles that would have
resulted in my having to leave the service!"
Dan had not the least desire to do any one an injustice, but just
now he was so astounded and indignant that his mind worked violently
rather than keenly.
"Serves me right!" sputtered Dalzell, at last. "A man in the
Navy has no business to think about the other sex. He should
give his whole time and thought to his profession and his country.
That's what I'll surely do after this."
Having reached this conclusion, the midshipman should have been
more at peace with himself, but he wasn't. He had been sorely,
even if foolishly wounded in his own self esteem, and it was bound
to hurt until the sensation wore off.
"You'll know more, one of these days, Danny boy," was his next
conclusion. "And what you know will do you a lot more good, too,
if it doesn't include any knowledge whatever of girls---except
the disposition and the ability to keep away from 'em! I suppose
there are a few who wouldn't fool a fellow in this shameless way
but it will be a heap safer not to try to find any of the few!"
Dan's head was still down, and he was walking as blindly as ever,
when he turned a corner and ran squarely into some one.
"Why don't you look out where you're going?" demanded that some
one.
"Why don't you look out yourself?" snapped Midshipman Dalzell,
and the next instant a heavy hand was laid upon him.