noon
`` Mr. Benson , as you 're leaving us , I want to express to you again my regret at having , for a while , believed you to be very different from the real Benson that I am now glad to know . '' `` Why , sir , I surely ca n't blame you for what you thought , '' smiled Jack . `` In fact , I feel that I owe a tremendous lot to you for your patience when things looked as black against me as they did . '' Jack and his friends , however , did not succeed in getting away from Annapolis until the entire battalion had a few minutes ' leisure immediately following the noon meal . Then the late crew of the `` Farnum '' had to shake hands rapidly all around . Just before they were summoned back to their duties , the assembled members of the battalion had time to give three rousing cheers just as the carriage bearing our young friends to the railway station rolled away . It was not long after that the `` Farnum '' was sold to the United States Government .