"Why, that"s the secret," was Dan"s unsatisfactory answer.
"I give it up," said Darrin hopelessly.
"Wise old head!" approved Dalzell.
Right here Dave received another jolt. The girl whom he had seen in the first cabin now returned, lifted away the veil, removed hat and wig, and stood revealed, from the shoulders up, a most unmistakable young man with a good-looking but wholly unfeminine face.
"Is this a public masquerade, and are the proceeds to be devoted to the Service?" Dave inquired.
But Dan replied only with a baffling wink.
"Oh, well," rejoined Darrin, "I can wait if you can. If you"re through with me here, I"m going back to my cabin."
"Have you no more questions?" Dan inquired mockingly.
"None that are likely to be answered, so I"ll leave you to your amus.e.m.e.nts."
"Too bad," murmured Dalzell to himself after Darrin had vanished, "for now Dave is sulky."
In this surmise, however, Danny Grin was quite wrong. Darrin merely refused to waste more guesses on a mystery that he could not solve, and had gone off to see what he could make out of the appearance of things.
"It"s one too many for me," Darrin finally confessed to himself.
Removing some of his clothing and his shoes, he lay down on a lounge, drawing a blanket over him.
For such a hulk as the "Prince" looked to be, the steam-heating plant was in excellent order. In the warm air Darrin dozed gently off, though not before the reflection had pa.s.sed through his mind:
"I might have guessed that the "Prince" was some such looking craft as this. It was named the "Prince" for the same reason that folks always give that same nickname to the mangiest-looking dog in town."
A little later Dan glanced in past the curtained doorway. Finding his chum asleep he tripped silently away. The anchor must have come up noiselessly and all commands must have been issued in low tones, for when Darrin awoke, rose and glanced out through the porthole he found the craft under way upon the open sea.
By the time that he had drawn on his shoes Darrin heard a rap at the doorway, followed by a messenger"s announcement:
"Luncheon will be served in the wardroom, sir, in fifteen minutes."
So Darrin completed his toilet, then hailed a messenger and learned where the wardroom was situated on this ship of mystery.
Stepping into the room ahead of time, Dave found only one young ensign, who saluted him.
"This is some strange craft," observed Darrin.
"Yes, sir," a.s.sented Ensign Stark.
"But suited to her mission, I dare say."
"Oh, yes, sir; hardly a doubt of that," smiled the junior officer, but he added no hint of information as to the "Prince"s" mission, and Darrin was much too good an officer to press his question.
A minute or two later two other ensigns entered, and on their heels came Dalzell with a young engineer officer and a surgeon. Dan presented his junior officers to his chum, then explained:
"Usually, of course, on a war craft, the "Old Man" dines in state alone, or with his guests. But the "Old Man"s" dining room is in other use on this cruiser, so we will dine with the juniors so long as they permit it."
"I suppose the "Old Man"s" dining room has been converted into a cashier"s cage for the Monday bargain sale you are planning," hinted Darrin.
"Why, yes, Darry; something like that," grinned Dalzell.
The meal had not proceeded far when Dan leaned toward his chum to whisper:
"By the way, I forgot to say that the rules require that no officer or man of the Navy shall appear outside in uniform. You brought along civilian clothes, I believe."
"A suit, yes."
"And I have an old overcoat and cloth cap I can loan you," Dan added. "I will have them sent to your cabin."
So, after he had returned to his own quarters, Dave waited, after donning civilian garb, until the promised articles had arrived. Then, putting on the coat and cap, he made his way forward and outside.
Coming out on the spar deck Darrin found plenty of use for his eyes.
Forward the "Prince" carried rather high bulwarks. Darrin had noted that in the harbor. But now he saw that which no observer on sh.o.r.e would have had reason to suspect.
In the bulwarks, on either side, were sliding doors or ports, and, behind these, in each instance, mounted on a carriage, was a very capable-looking naval gun.
Besides, on either side, was a machine gun, rigged to a platform that could be raised high enough to make the guns effective, even with the mark not more than a hundred feet from the hull.
"Rubber!" shouted Dalzell, joyously, from the bridge, as Dave strolled slowly forward.
"Some ship, all right," Darrin called back. He then retraced his steps, making for the bridge, where Dan and Ensign Peters stood, both of them attired like merchantmen officers.
"What do you think of her?" demanded Danny Grin, as his chum took stand beside him.
"You told me it was going to be a humorous adventure," Dave suggested.
"I haven"t yet discovered where the laugh comes in."
"Oh, we can"t laugh," quoth Danny Grin, "until we find something to laugh at."
"Of course," Dave pursued, his eyes twinkling, "the "Prince" is a good deal of a joke in herself."
"And those hidden guns are the point to the joke," Dan retorted. "But wait a few hours, or a few days. Oh, you"ll laugh!"
There was, however, in Dan"s eyes the next moment, a grim look that considerably belied his words.
Dave hadn"t really tried hard to worm the secret from his friend, and now he gave it up altogether, but asked teasingly:
"Are you going to call upon me for any work, beyond saving your scalp when you get into too tight a corner?"
"You"re a guest aboard, without duties," Dan informed him, then added, seriously:
"But I won"t deny that I realize how valuable your counsel may prove in some sudden emergency."
Somehow, Darrin found that he tired of being on the bridge of a ship on which he had no duties, no authority. Leaving the bridge, after a few minutes, he descended and roamed the decks, fore and aft. Wherever he encountered sailors outside he found them in the garb of merchantman sailors; below decks they wore the uniform.
The "Prince" was kicking along at about eight knots an hour, and was already out of sight of land. It was when he strolled down into the engine room that Dave was astonished to find engines that were furbished up to the last notch of perfection. Moreover, his practised eye noted that the engines looked as though capable of vastly faster work than they were performing.