Somers, how very careful the Navy has to be about making arrests in times
of peace, when the civil authorities are all-supreme. We carried our right
as far as it could possibly be stretched when we boarded and searched that
sloop for you."
"I don't care so much about that," contended Eph, warmly. "But it does jar
on me, sir, to have you take such a view of my friends. You don't know
them; you don't understand them as Mr. Farnum and Mr. Pollard do."
"Perhaps you wouldn't blame me as much for my opinions," replied Mr.
Mayhew, "if you could look at the matter from my viewpoint, Mr. Somers. I
am in charge of this cruise, which is one of instruction to naval cadets,
and I am in a very large measure responsible for the conduct and good
behavior of young men who have been selected as instructors to the cadets.
If you were in my place, Mr. Somers, would you be patient over young men
who, when they get ashore, get into one unseemly scrape after another? Or
would you wonder, as I do, whether it will not be best for me to end this
practice cruise and sail back to Annapolis, there to make my report in the
matter?"
"For heaven's sake don't do that," begged Eph Somers, hoarsely.
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