Читать книгу Ralph Osborn, Midshipman at Annapolis. A Story of Life at the U.S. Naval Academy онлайн

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Ralph, overcome with feeling at the superintendent’s words of commendation, could stammer but unintelligibly in reply. And for some time after the superintendent had left, Ralph stood in the middle of his room, andiron still firmly grasped, wondering at the exciting events he had just experienced.

The bars of the Annapolis jail may be sufficiently strong to keep securely negro crap shooters, but they were hardly child’s play to the skilful Sunny Jim, who had broken through and was far away long before morning.

A searching investigation developed no clue as to how the examination questions had gotten adrift, but a new examination was immediately made out and substituted for the one previously made. All in the ignorance of Mr. Thomas G. Short, who marched to the examination Monday morning believing that he was to make close to a perfect mark in mathematics.

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On Monday morning the candidates flocked by scores to the room in the Naval Academy where they were to be examined. After the inspection of their appointments each candidate was assigned to a numbered desk. Ralph Osborn found himself at a desk numbered 153. On the desk was a pad of paper on which he was to do his work, pencils, and the written examination questions which this first day were in arithmetic, and algebra as far as quadratics. Ralph picked the examination paper up and eagerly scanned it; but in a moment a bell rang, and he heard a loud cry of: “Attention,” uttered in an authoritative manner by an officer in lieutenant’s uniform, who said, when complete quiet existed: “Each candidate will number each sheet of his work in the upper left-hand corner with the number of his desk. In no case will the candidate write his name on any sheet; when you have finished leave all your papers on your desk. Now go ahead with your work; you have four hours and you’ll need it.”