There stood Breslin, calmly gazing about the vessel, with no show of emotion at the awkward predicament he had placed himself in.
He had spoken to two cadets near him, calling them by name, and addressing them in the free and easy manner of an old friendship.
One of them was Bemis Perry, and he looked him squarely in the face as he said:
“By what right, sir, do you dare to address a gentleman?”
With this he walked away and met Clemmons as he came on deck.
Decatur Knowles, the other cadet to whom Breslin had spoken, simply cut him dead in silence, and walked away.
Just then, as Breslin, not in the least abashed, for he gave a low, defiant laugh, turned and glanced over the ship, Scott Clemmons came on deck and started toward him, but all saw with no joy at beholding him.
He held out his hand, but without taking it, Clemmons responded in a low voice, quivering with anger, but which several overheard:
“Why have you dared come here and ask for me?”
In answer to the hail of the officer of the deck Barney Breslin had asserted that he had important letters for Scott Clemmons, and so had come on board.
His speaking to Bemis Perry and his rebuff, his cut by Decatur Knowles, and the fact that a score of middies took it into their heads to pass near him and make no acknowledgment of his existence, did not appear to distress him in the least.
“He has the gall of a book agent,” muttered a cadet, in reference to him.
“The cheek of a Chinese idol,” another remarked.
“I pity him that he has fallen so low,” Mark Merrill commented, for it did distress him to see one who had once had the same opportunity they all had of making a name for himself throw it away as he had done.
“Your heart is softer than your fist, Merrill,” Dillingham returned with a smile.
“Hard as you can hit, Merrill, I do not believe you could bruise that fellow’s cheek,” said Nazro.
Though not wishing to appear to watch his meeting with Clemmons, all eyes turned surreptitiously upon the two, and several who were nearest heard the very decidedly uttered words of the cadet midshipman as to why the disgraced youth had dared visit him aboard ship.
But Breslin did not seem in the least disconcerted, nor did he make an effort to hand over the “important letters,” which he had said he brought with him.