CHAPTER X.
THE GRIM WATCH FROM THE WAVES By the time that little more than the mastheads of the departing battleships were visible, Hallam opened his eyes.
It would have seemed a vastly kinder fate had he been allowed to remain unconscious to the last.
Hallam had not been strangled by the inrush of water.

In going overboard, this midshipman had struck the water with the back of his head and had been stunned.

In the absence of attention he had remained a long time unconscious.
Even now the hapless midshipman whose frollicking had been the cause of the disaster, did not immediately regain his full senses.
"Why, we're all in the water," he remarked after a while.
"Yes," assented Darrin, trying to speak cheerfully.
Midshipman Hallam remained silent for some moments before he next asked: "How did it happen ?" "Fell overboard," replied Dan laconically, failing to mention who it was who had fallen over the stern.
Again a rather long silence on Hallam's part.

Then, at last, he observed: "Funny how we all fell over at the same time." To this neither of his classmates made any rejoinder.
"See here," shouted Hallam, after a considerable period of silent wondering, "I remember it all now.

I was fooling at the stern rail and I toppled overboard." Dan nodded without words.
"And you fellows jumped in after me," roared Hallam, both his mental and bodily powers now beginning to return.