"This is yours now, Tony; and twice as much more afterwards, if you do what I want of you. It's a good joke that I want to play on a midshipman down at the Academy."

"A joke, eh?" repeated the Greek. "Then, sare, my frien', it can't be anything so ver' bad, eef it only a joke."

"Oh, it isn't anything bad," Brimmer lied cheerfully. "But that fellow played a warm one on me, and I want to pay him back."

"I understand, sare, my ver' good frien'."

Inside of five minutes Tony understood very much better. Still, the Greek saw no real harm in what he now engaged himself to do.

That night Tony slept with Brimmer's ten-dollar note under his pillow. Dave Darrin slept as soundly as ever, unconscious of harm hanging over his head.

Midshipman Brimmer did much gleeful chuckling after taps, as he lay on the bed in the room that Henkel had once shared with him.

"Now, let's see anyone get a chance to bring this job back to me!" laughed Brimmer. "And goodby, Darrin! The Naval Academy won't know you much longer!"

CHAPTER XVII

TONY BAITS THE HOOK

Up to this time Darrin had dropped in at Tony's but once, and Dan not at all.

The Sat.u.r.day after Christmas was an anxious one for nearly all of the midshipmen. Only a few availed themselves of any privilege of going into Annapolis this Sat.u.r.day afternoon. Most of the young men remained in their rooms at Bancroft Hall, anxiously going over the work in which they were soon to take their semi-annual examinations.

Especially was this true of the fourth cla.s.s men in the "wooden"

or lowest sections. Most of these men knew that, if they succeeded in staying on at all, it would be by a very small margin indeed.

Even the men in the "savvy sections," with the highest marks of their cla.s.s, were eager to come out as well as possible in the dreaded semi-ans.

Dave and Dan both had secured permission to go into Annapolis.

"We'll want to clear out the cobwebs by a brisk walk, anyway,"

declared Darrin.

They did not intend to go townward, however, until rather late in the afternoon.

Dan, when he could stand the grind no longer picked up his cap.

Dave wanted to put in least fifteen minutes more over his book.

"I've got to get out in the air," Dalzell muttered.

"Going to town?" Dave asked.

"Yes. Coming along?"

"I've got a little more in logarithms to clean up," murmured Darrin, looking wistfully at two pages in one of his text-books on mathematics.

"Will it do as well, Danny boy, if I follow in fifteen or twenty minutes?"

"Yes; you'll probably find me on Main Street, though you can look in at Wiegard's on the way."

Wiegard's is the famous confectionery shop where cadets go for candy, for ices or soda fountain drinks. If upper cla.s.s men and young ladies are plentiful in Wiegard's, however, prudent fourth cla.s.s men keep right on without stopping.

Dan left Bancroft Hall quite certain that his chum would not be along for at least an hour.

At the gate Dan made his report of liberty, then kept on up Maryland Avenue.

As he turned into State Circle he slowed up a trifle, glancing in through the door at Wiegard's.

"Too many upper cla.s.s men in there for me," decided Dan, so turning he made his was way through the State Capitol grounds, and on into Main Street.

Here he strolled more slowly, pa.s.sing, here and there, a member of his cla.s.s, though none with whom he was particularly intimate.

"I'm thirsty," decided Dalzell. "I don't believe I want any of the hot drinks. There's Tony's. I'll drop in and get a bottle of soda lemonade."

Tony saw the fourth cla.s.sman coming, and a peculiar smile crossed his lips. On the occasion on which Brimmer had pointed out the chums to the Greek the latter had understood that it was Dan who was to be the princ.i.p.al victim.

"Good afternoon, Tony!" was Dan's greeting, as he stepped into the shop. "Merry Christmas."

"Thank you, sare, good frien'," was Tony's reply. Then the Greek turned briefly, to hide a grin.

"Crowd seems to have left you, Tony," said Dan sympathetically.

"Save their money to buy present for girls," guessed the Greek.

"Tony, have you a small bottle of lemon soda that's good and cold?"

"Oh, yes, sare."

"Then I want it."

Tony fumbled among bottles clinking in ice under the counter.

At last he found what he wanted and held the bottle up to the capping machine. Then the Greek did something unusual. Instead of emptying the bottle into a gla.s.s on the counter he performed that service underneath the counter. Next he held the gla.s.s up full of bright, cold liquid filled with bubble and sparkle.

"It makes me thirstier to look at this," muttered Dan, picking up the gla.s.s. "I'll get it down as soon as I can."

He sipped the last out of the gla.s.s, put do a coin to pay for it, and stood, for a moment, chatting with Tony.

"Excuse me, sare," broke in the Greek, suddenly. "I hear ma wife call me."

Opening a door behind him Tony stepped into a hallway.

The short December afternoon was drawing to a close. Standing in the shop Dan saw that the light in the street was growing less.

"I'll walk a little further down the street," thought Dan. "Then I'll turn back, and keep on toward State Circle, and look for Dave."

As he took the first step away from the store Dalzell noticed a slight feeling of dizziness.