It was just about the first of June.  Our two young travelers had come by train, from Baltimore to a little country junction.  Thence they had traveled, briefly, by trolley, to Odenton.  There, after a wait of some minutes, they had boarded another trolley car, and were now bowling along through the open country of that part of Maryland.  At the end of their journey lay the historic little town of Annapolis.  It was now after seven o’clock; still daylight, the fag end of a beautiful June day in Maryland.

Dave Darrin and Dan Dalzell had been appointed as midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy.  If they should succeed in passing the four years’ course in the big government school at Annapolis, they would then be sent to sea for two years, as midshipmen, after which they would return to Annapolis for their final examinations.  Passing these last examinations, they would then be commissioned as ensigns in the United States Navy, with the possibility of some day becoming full-fledged admirals.

Readers of our High School Boys Series have no need of further introduction to Dave and Dan.

These two young men will be remembered as former members of Dick & Co., six famous chums back in the lively little city of Gridley.

Dick Prescott, Greg Holmes, Dave Darrin, Dan Dalzell, Tom Reade and Harry Hazleton had composed the famous sextette who, in their day at Gridley High School, had been fast chums and leaders in all pertaining to High School athletics in their part of the state.

Following their High School days, however, the six chums had become somewhat widely scattered.  Dick Prescott and Greg Holmes secured appointments to the United States Military Academy.  Readers of our West Point Series are already familiar with the stirring doings and life of Dick and Greg at the fine old Army Academy on the Hudson.  At the time this present narrative opens Dick and Greg had been nearly three months as plebe cadets, as told in the first volume of the West Point Series, under the title, “Dick PRESCOTT’S first year at west point.”

Tom Reade and Harry Hazleton had gone from Gridley High School to the far West, where they had connected themselves with a firm of civil engineers engaged in railway construction.  What befell Tom and Harry is told in “The young engineers in Colorado,” the first and very entertaining volume in the Young Engineers Series.

Readers of “The high school captain of the team” recall how Dave Darrin won his appointment to the Naval Academy, as did Dick Prescott his chance for West Point, from the Congressman of the home district.  Dalzell’s appointment, on the other hand, came from one of the two United States Senators from that state.

And here Dave and Dan were, on a trolley car from Odenton, rapidly nearing Annapolis.