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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/17058.txt b/17058.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b89cd29 --- /dev/null +++ b/17058.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6999 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Submarine Boys' Lightning Cruise, by +Victor G. Durham + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Submarine Boys' Lightning Cruise + The Young Kings of the Deep + + +Author: Victor G. Durham + + + +Release Date: November 13, 2005 [eBook #17058] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUBMARINE BOYS' LIGHTNING +CRUISE*** + + +E-text prepared by Jim Ludwig + + + +Note: This is book five of eight of the Submarine Boys Series. + + + + +THE SUBMARINE BOYS' LIGHTNING CRUISE + +The Young Kings of the Deep + +by + +VICTOR G. DURHAM + +1910 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTERS + I. Why the Danger Sign Was Up + II. Torpedo Practice at Last + III. Struck by a Submerged Foe + IV. A Submariner's Revenge + V. The Mysterious Order Comes + VI. Judas & Co. Introduce Themselves + VII. Eph Sommers Plays Gallant + VIII. One, Two, Three--A Full Bag + IX. But Something Happened Next + X. John C. Rhinds Advocates Fair Sport! + XI. The Strain of Red-Hot Metal + XII. Let a Sailor Stick to Her Deck + XIII. The Trick is Easily Seen Through + XIV. Radwin Doesn't See His Best Chance + XV. The Goal of the Lightning Cruise + XVI. Jack Gives the Order. "Fire!" + XVII. The Message of Terror +XVIII. The Findings on the "Thor" + XIX. On the Other Side of the Forced Door + XX. Captain Jack Pulls a New String + XXI. Jack Meets a Human Fact, Face to Face + XXII. A Cornered Submarine Captain +XXIII. A Coward's Last Ditch + XXIV. Conclusion + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WHY THE "DANGER" SIGN WAS UP + + +"Danger!" + +That sign might have been over an air-hole in the ice; or it might have +been near rapidly moving shafting and belting in a factory. + +As a matter of fact, the letters, white against the red paint on the door +of the shed, meant danger in the most terrible form. It was the sort of +danger, which, defied too far, would send one traveling skyward. + +The shed stood in a lonely corner of the big Farnum shipbuilding yards at +Dunhaven. Now, it was the Farnum yard in which the Pollard submarine +boats were built, and this shed contained some two dozen Whitehead +submarine torpedoes, each with its fearful load of two hundred pounds of +that dread high explosive, guncotton. + +It was in the month of February, and the day, at this seacoast point, was +cold and blustery, when two boys of seventeen, each in natty blue +uniforms and caps resembling those worn by naval officers, crossed the +yard toward the shed. Over their uniforms both boys wore heavy, padded +blue ulsters, also of naval pattern. + +"Danger?" laughed young Captain Jack Benson, stopping before the door +and fumbling for the key. "Well, I should say so!" + +"Something like two tons and a half of guncotton in this old shed," +smiled Hal Hastings. "That's not mentioning some other high +explosives." + +"It's this gun-cotton that begins to make our calling in life look like a +really dangerous one," muttered Jack, as he produced the key and fitted +it into the lock. + +"Once upon a time," murmured Hal, "we thought there was sufficient +danger, just in going out on the ocean in a submarine torpedo craft, and +diving below the surface." + +"Yet we found that submarine travel wasn't really dangerous," pursued +Captain Jack. "Really, riding around in a submarine craft seems as safe, +and twice as pleasant, as cruising in any other kind of yacht." + +"After we've gotten more used to having hundreds of pounds of gun-cotton +on board," smiled Hal, "I don't suppose we'll ever think of the danger in +that stuff, either." + +Jack unlocked the door, swinging it open. Then both young men passed +inside the red shed. + +It needed hardly more than a glance, from an observing person, to make +certain that neither boy was likely to be much bothered by any ordinary +form of danger. + +For a number of months, now, Jack Benson and Hal Hastings had lived all +but continually aboard submarine torpedo boats. They had operated such +craft, when awake, and had dreamed of doing it when asleep. Being youths +of intense natures, and unusually quick to learn, they had long before +qualified as experts in handling submarine craft. + +They had yet, however, one thing to learn practically. It needs the +deadly torpedo, fired below the water, and traveling under the surface, +to make the torpedo boat the greatest of all dangers that menace the +haughty battleship of a modern navy. + +Now, at last, Captain Jack Benson, together with his engineer, Hal +Hastings, and Eph Somers, another young member of the crew, were about +to have their first practical drill with the actual torpedo. An officer +of the United States Navy, especially detailed for the work, was expected +hourly at Dunhaven. The three submarine boys were eager for their first +taste of this work. Barely less interested were Jacob Farnum, +shipbuilder, and president of the submarine company, and David Pollard, +inventor of the Pollard type of submarine craft. + +In this shed, placed on racks in three tiers, lay the two dozen Whitehead +torpedoes with which the first work was to be done. As Jack stepped +about the shed, looking to see that everything was in order, he was +thinking of the exciting work soon to come. + +Eph Somers was near at hand, though up in the village at that particular +moment. There was a fourth member of the crew, however, named +Williamson. He was a grown man, a machinist who had been long in +Farnum's employ, and who was considered a most valuable hand to have in +the engine room of a submarine. + +Williamson, during the preceding fortnight, had been away in the interior +of the country. He had taken a midwinter vacation, and had gone to visit +his mother. Now, however, the machinist knew of the work at hand, and +his return was expected. + +"Really," declared Jack, turning around to his chum, "Williamson ought +to be here not later than to-morrow morning. He had Mr. Farnum's +letter in good season." + +At this moment a heavy tread was heard on the light crust of snow +outside. Then a man's head appeared in the doorway. + +"Speaking of angels!" laughed Hal. + +"Williamson, I'm mighty glad to see you back," hailed Captain Jack, +delightedly. + +"I'm glad to be back, if there's anything unusual going to happen," +replied the machinist, as they shook hands all around. Then, as they +fell to chatting, the machinist seated himself on a keg, the top of +which was about half off, revealing, underneath, a layer of jute bagging. + +"We're going to have some great practice work," declared Hal, moving +about. "We're just waiting for that Navy man, and then we're going out +on the new submarine--the one that's named after me, you know." + +Out in the little harbor beyond rode at anchor two grim-looking little +torpedo boats, each about one hundred and ten feet long. The older one +was named the "Benson," after Captain Jack. But the latest one to be +launched, which had had its full trial trip only some few days before, +bore the name of "Hastings" after the capable young chief engineer of +the Pollard boats. + +Both of the boys, by this time, happened to be looking away from the +machinist. Williamson, in utter unconcern, drew a pipe out of one of +his pockets, filled it, and stuck the stem between his lips. Next, he +struck a safety match, softly, against the side of the match-box, and +lighted his pipe, drawing in great whiffs. + +"Just how far does this practice go!" inquired the machinist, still +sitting on the keg and smoking contentedly. + +At that moment Captain Jack Benson caught, in his nostrils, the scent +of burning tobacco. + +In an instant a steely glitter shone in the young captain's eyes. Firm, +strong lines appeared about his mouth. All that part of the face showed +white and pallid. Just a second or two later Hal Hastings also turned. +Like a flash his lower jaw dropped, as though the hinge thereof had +broken. + +When Captain Jack's voice came to him it sounded low, yet hard and +metallic. One would have wondered whether he had suddenly become ugly. + +"Williamson," he directed, "just step outside and see if Eph is there!" + +Hardly noting the unusual ring in the young commander's voice, the +machinist, still with the pipe-stem between his teeth, rose and walked +out into the open. With an almost inarticulate yell Captain Jack +Benson leaped after him, striking the man in the back and sending him +spinning a dozen feet beyond. + +Hal Hastings, too, dashed through the door way; then paused, grasping +the edge of the door and shutting it with a bang. + +"What on earth do you mean by knocking a fellow down like that?" demanded +the machinist, angrily, leaping to his feet and wheeling about, leaving +the lighted pipe on the snowcrust. + +"Look at the sign on this door," ordered Hal Hastings, pointing to the +big white letters. + +"Danger, eh?" asked Williamson, speaking more quietly. "Well, that door +was open and swung back when I came along, so I couldn't see any +warning. But what is there in the shed that's so mighty dangerous?" + +"What do you suppose is in the half-open keg that you were sitting on?" +demanded Captain Jack, rather hoarsely. + +"What!" queried the machinist, curiously. + +"The head of that keg is half off," Jack continued. "Now, if any sparks +from your pipe had dropped down and set the bagging afire--well, that +keg is almost full of cubes of gun-cotton!" + +"Whew!" gasped Williamson, beginning to look pallid himself. + +"Nor is that all," Hal took up. "Of course, if you had touched off that +gun-cotton in the keg, it would have sent us all through the roof. But +the smaller explosion would have touched off the two tons and a half of +gun-cotton in those Whitehead torpedoes. That would have laid the whole +shipyard flat. In fact, after the torpedoes went up, there wouldn't have +been much left of any part of Dunhaven!" + +"Gr--great Hercules!" gasped the machinist, his face now losing every +vestige of color. + +Then, after a moment: + +"With so much sky-high trouble stored in that shed, you should have a +sign up." + +"There is one, on the door," replied Captain Jack. "But the door +happened to be swung open, so that you couldn't see it. Yet I guess +you're the only one in all Dunhaven who didn't know what the shed +contains." + +"And how does the little town like the idea!" demanded Williamson, +beginning to smile as his color slowly returned. + +"Why, the people can't expect to have very much to say," Jack replied. +"We have a permit to store the explosive, and it's at the request of the +United States Government. You're not afraid to be near so much rockety +stuff are you?" + +Williamson gazed at the young skipper reproachfully. + +"Now, what have I ever done, Captain, or what have I failed to do, that +should make you think me only forty per cent. good on nerve? Though +I'll admit that my appetite for smoking won't be good when I'm near this +shed. How long is the stuff going to stay here? That is, if some idiot +doesn't play with matches in that shed." + +"I expect it will about all be used, after the Navy officer gets on the +scene, and drills us in using torpedoes," Captain Benson answered. "It +isn't intended to keep that sort of stuff stored here all the time." + +"Oh! Then I reckon I won't toss my job into the harbor," grinned the +machinist. "How soon are you going to want me?" + +"You can go aboard the 'Hastings' at once," replied Skipper Jack. "It +won't do any harm to have the machinery of the new boat looked over with +a most critical eye." + +"Any gun-cotton, rack-a-rock wool or dynamite silk stored on board the +new craft?" inquired Williamson, with a look of mock anxiety. + +"Nothing more dangerous than gasoline," Captain Jack smiled. + +"Oh, I don't mind that stuff,". chuckled the machinist. "I want a +smoke. That's why I'm particular about not going to work near any stuff +that has such a big idea of itself that it swells up every time a match +or a lighted pipe comes around. I'll go aboard now." + +With this statement, Williamson strolled down to the beach, untying a +small skiff and pulling himself out to the newer of the pair of very +capable submarine torpedo boats that lay at moorings out in the little +private harbor. + +Hal, in the meantime, had quietly swung the shed door to and locked it. +The great white word, "Danger," was once more in plain view. + +"What are you going to do now!" asked young Hastings of his chum. + +"I reckon I'll spend my time wondering where the Navy man is," laughed +Captain Jack. + +"Let's go up to the office, then. Mr. Farnum may have had some word in +the matter." + +As they neared the door of the office building, Eph Somers, who was a +combination of first officer, steward and general utility man on board +the Pollard boats, came in through the gate, joining his friends at +once. + +Readers of our previous volumes are now well acquainted with these young +men and their friends. In "_The Submarine Boys on Duty_" was told how +Jack and Hal came to Dunhaven at just the right moment, as it happened, +to edge their way into the employ of Jacob Farnum, the young +shipbuilder, who was then engaged in the construction of the first of +those famous submarine torpedo craft. The first boat was named the +"Pollard," after David Pollard, the inventor of the craft and of its +successors. By the time that the "Pollard" was ready for launching Jack +and Hal had made themselves so valuable to their employer that the boys +were allowed to take to the water with the boat when it left the stocks. +Eph Somers, freckle-faced and sunny aired, was a Dunhaven boy who had +fairly won his way aboard the same craft by his many sided ability. Yet, +under the direction of Messrs. Farnum and Pollard these youngsters so +rapidly acquired the difficult knack of handling submarine boats that +they remained aboard. In the end Jack Benson became the recognized +captain of the boat. Some notable cruises were made, in which the great +value of the Pollard type of submarines was splendidly proved, thanks +largely to the cleverness of the boys who handled her. + +The "Pollard" was present during naval manoeuvres of a fleet of United +States warships. Captain Jack conceived and carried out a most laughable +trick against one of the battleships, which attracted public attention +generally to this new craft. + +In the second volume of the series, "_The Submarine Boys' Trial Trip_," +our readers found the young men engaged in giving further and much more +startling demonstration to naval officers of the full value of the +Pollard type of boat. Incidentally, it was told how a grasping +financier attempted to get control of the Farnum shipyard and its +submarine business, with a series of startling plots that the submarine +boys were instrumental in balking. The submarine boat itself passed +some of the severest trials that could be invented, yet the trials +through which the builders and the submarine boys passed were far +greater. Yet, in the end, just as Mr. Farnum and his associates were +about to go to the wall, financially, the Navy Department purchased +and paid for the "Pollard." In this volume was also told how Jack and +his friends were the first to discover a simple, yet seemingly +mysterious, method of leaving and entering a submarine boat at will when +it lay on the bottom of the ocean. + +Then, in "_The Submarine Boys and the Middies_," was related how Captain +Jack and his chums secured the prize detail of going to Annapolis with +the company's new boat, the "Farnum," there to teach the midshipmen of +the Naval Academy how to operate boats of this class. That narrative +was unusually full of adventures, including the laughable recital of how +Eph innocently brought down upon the trio a first-class sample of hazing +by Uncle Sam's naval cadets. Captain Jack had many startling adventures +with the secret agent of a rival submarine company, who sought to +discredit and disgrace the young commander of the submarine boys. + +In the volume preceding this, entitled "_The Submarine Boys and the +Spies_," the third of the company's boats, the "Benson," named in +honor of the young captain, was discovered in Florida waters. This +newest submarine had been sent to Spruce Beach, in December, to undergo +some tests and to give an exhibition, the U.S. gunboat, "Waverly" +being on hand to act as host. In this volume it was related how Captain +Jack's very life was at stake, from the foreign spies gathered at +Spruce Beach to pry into the secrets of the mysterious submarine. +Here the United States Secret Service officers were called in to aid, +yet it was Captain Jack and his friends who contributed to the full +success of the government sleuths. At this period of his career +Captain Jack's greatest dangers came through the wiles of charming +women spies, especially one beautiful young Russian woman, Mlle. Sara +Nadiboff, easily the most clever of all international spies. Yet the +cleverness of the submarine boys carried them successfully, and with +highest honor, through the gravest situations in their eventful, young +careers. + +Just at this particular time the young men had been going through dull +days. Beyond the fact of the mere presence of the heavily charged +torpedoes at the shipyard there had been nothing like excitement, for +some time. This dullness, however, was destined to turn, suddenly, +into the most intense and exciting activity. + +As Jack pushed open the outer door of the office building of the +shipyard, Jacob Farnum, the owner, happened to be bustling through the +corridor. + +"Hallo, boys!" came his quick, cheery greeting. "I was just about to +send for you." + +"Any word," queried Jack, good-humoredly, "as to when that cold-molasses +naval officer is going to be here!" + +From within the office sounded a light laugh. + +"You'll see him shortly," grinned Mr. Farnum. "But come in, boys." + +As the three submarine boys entered the office, in a group, their +glances fell upon two men, in the uniform of United States sailors, +standing at ease near the door. In a chair near Mr. Farnum's desk sat +a third man, dressed in ordinary citizen attire. He was a man of about +twenty-eight, dark, smooth-faced, slender of figure, yet +broad-shouldered. + +"Lieutenant Danvers," called Mr. Farnum, smiling broadly, "I want to +present my submarine boys to you. First of all, Jack Benson, our +young captain." + +Realizing that his question had been overheard, Jack went forward with +a very red face, holding out his hand. With a quiet smile, Lieutenant +Frank Danvers, U.S. Navy, took the boy's hand. Then Hal and Eph were +presented. + +"I see that I was mistaken about the molasses," laughed Jack. + +"Nothing as sweet as all that about the Navy, eh?" smiled Mr. Danvers. +"However, my delay in getting here was due entirely to delay in official +orders. I am now on the ground, however, and ready for prompt--" + +At this moment the outer door shot open with a bang. Hal looked out +into the corridor to see what had caused the disturbance. + +"Look a-here!" sounded the voice of machinist Williamson, in an injured +tone. "Here I am, looking about for a quiet place for a five minutes' +smoke. Captain Benson sends me out to the 'Hastings,' telling me that +it will be all right there. So I light my pipe on the platform deck +and go below. Great Jehosh! The first thing I run on to is a couple +of torpedoes, about a mile long and two hundred yards thick, loaded up +with gun-cotton or pistol-satin enough to blow the ocean up into the +sky. And I haven't had my smoke yet!" + +"That's all right," called Hal, quietly, as the machinist's somewhat +shaking voice died out. "You're always safe, man, in following any lead +that Captain Jack Benson gives you. Go back on the 'Hastings' and have +your smoke out." + +"But those two torpedoes, loaded up to the muzzles with artillery-felt, +or some other exploding kind of dry-goods!" protested the machinist. + +"Those two torpedoes are dummies," laughed Hal Hastings. "They're +aboard just for dummy torpedo practice. There isn't a kick in a dozen +of 'em. Go back and get your smoke, man!" + +Hal must have looked at the machinist with unusual sharpness, for +Williamson went promptly out through the door, closing it after him. + +"I'm ready to go aboard, Mr. Benson," proposed Lieutenant Danvers, "and +make a start whenever you're so inclined." + +"We'd better put it off for half an hour," proposed Skipper Jack, with +a laugh. "That'll give Williamson a chance to have that smoke of his +over with." + +"That'll suit me," agreed the naval officer, cheerfully. "In fact, +Mr. Benson, if you won't think me too much like cold molasses"--Jack +winced--"I would propose that we start at a little after one o'clock +this afternoon. Even at that, we'll be out long enough between that +time and dark." + +"Any arrangement that suits you, Lieutenant, suits me," nodded Jack +Benson. "You're going with us to-day, aren't you, Mr. Farnum?" + +"Don't you believe, for a moment," retorted the shipbuilder, "that I'd +let anything keep me from the first torpedo practice on one of our +boats. And I'm almost ashamed of Dave Pollard. That fellow, instead +of being here, is away somewhere in hiding, dreaming about a new style +of clutch for the after end of the torpedo tube. Oh, yes, I'll be with +you!" + +"Hallo!" muttered Eph, stepping to a window that looked out on the yard +near the street gate. "What's this coming? A hundred people, at least, +and they look like a mob!" + +There was, in truth, a goodly inpouring of people, and fully a dozen of +these new-corners seemed to be trying to talk at the same time. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +TORPEDO PRACTICE AT LAST + + +"Perhaps they're coming to make a row about having so much gun-cotton +stored close to the village," hinted Lieutenant Danvers. + +The same thought was in Captain Jack Benson's mind. However, they +were not long to be kept in doubt, for Jacob Farnum had moved hastily +to the outer door. + +"Good day, friends!" called the shipbuilder, as he pulled the outer door +open, for he recognized most of the faces of men and women in the crowd. +"What's wrong, friends!" + +At the very doorstep the leaders of the crowd halted. + +"The 'Mary Bond' isn't in yet, Mr. Farnum," called one of the men. + +That was the name of a fishing smack that put out from Dunhaven at +regular intervals through the winter. She carried a Dunhaven captain +and mate, and, altogether, fourteen men and boys. + +"When should she have been in!" queried Mr. Farnum. The crowd had +halted, now, and all but their chosen speaker remained silent. + +"Yesterday morning, sir," replied the spokesman. + +"Do you people fear that harm has come to the 'Mary Bond!" queried the +shipbuilder. + +"Why, it must be so, sir. For the smack wasn't due to go out more'n +some forty miles. With the winds we've been having lately she could +come in, any time, within a few hours." + +"Perhaps the captain had a poor run of luck," suggested Mr. Farnum. "He +may be staying out longer than usual." + +"No, sir, for all the reports that have come in off the sea are of big +catches. The ocean has been swarming with fish these last few days," +replied the spokesman. + +"Then, friends, I take it there's something you want me to do. What is +it?" demanded Jacob Farnum. + +"We've come to ask you, sir, if you won't have one of your torpedo boats +put out and look for the 'Mary Bond.' Your boats can go a big distance +in a few hours. We're afraid, Mr. Farnum, that the smack's canvas or +sticks may have suffered in the big blow of yesterday. We're afraid, +too, that the 'Mary Bond' may be drifting about helplessly on the sea, +just for the need of a little aid. We're afraid, sir, that good +Dunhaven men may be in great danger of going to the bottom, and leaving +behind families that--" + +The spokesman stopped, a little choke in his voice. As though in answer +sobs came from some of the women. + +"Now, now, friends, if that's the trouble, we'll soon know about it," +promised the shipbuilder, one of the biggest-hearted men living. "One +of our boats is going out for practice. But, if you'll supply a good +sea-going hand or two, the second boat shall go out and sweep the seas +hereabouts, looking for the 'Mary Bond.'" + +A cheer went up at once. Mr. Farnum flushed with pleasure. Not above +doing a kind act, he also enjoyed having it appreciated. + +"Who'll command the relief boat!" called one of the women. "Jack +Benson?" + +"No," replied Mr. Farnum, shaking his head. "Captain Benson must go out +on naval business to-day." + +A murmur of disappointment went up from the crowd. Jack Benson was a +young skipper on whose success a Dunhaven crowd would make bets. + +"But, see here," proposed the shipbuilder, "I'll go out myself, on the +'Benson,' and take Williamson along with me. Now, you folks find any +local salt-water captain and a couple of good deck hands to go with me." + +"When will you start, sir?" asked the spokesman. + +"The minute you have my helpers ready. There's Captain Allen among you +now. If he'll go, he's as good a salt-water dog as I want on a cruise +with me. Let him pick two sailors out of the crowd. We can start in +five minutes." + +Another cheer went up as Jacob Farnum, leaving the outer door open, +hurried back to his own party. Captain Allen, a retired master of +coasting vessels, had five times as many volunteers in the crowd as he +needed. + +"Jack, I'm sorry I can't go with you," sighed Mr. Farnum, as he returned. +"But the call of humanity is too big a one. I'm going to take Williamson +with me. The rest of you go with Lieutenant Danvers and his men. I'll +hope to be able to go with you to-morrow, anyway." + +"Isn't there a tug hereabouts that those people could hire?" questioned +the naval officer. + +"Oh, yes; there's a small one to the south of here, but her captain +would charge at least fifty dollars a day," replied the shipbuilder, +as he drew on a heavy deck ulster. + +"I suppose these people expect you to go out for nothing," hinted +Lieutenant Danvers. + +"Oh, yes, of course," nodded the shipbuilder. "But one can't be a +crank, or a miser, when women are red-eyed and weeping from worry over +their missing husbands and sons." + +There was a suspicion of moisture in Mr. Farnum's own eyes as he snatched +up a cap, bidding his own party a hasty good-bye ere he ran from the +office. + +"There goes a good-natured man," laughed Lieutenant Danvers. + +"A big-hearted one, you mean, sir," corrected Captain Jack Benson. +"He's a man with a heart bigger than any torpedo craft he could possibly +build and launch." + +"I wish him all luck," said the naval officer, heartily. "And that +crowd, and also the poor seafaring men that put out in the like of the +'Mary Bond.'" + +The crowd had gone from the office building, now, following Mr. Farnum +and his volunteers down to the little harbor. Jack, his chums and the +naval party slowly followed down to the water front. + +Little time did the shipbuilder lose in getting under way. A rousing +cheer ascended when the grim little "Benson" slipped her moorings and +turned her nose out toward the sea. + +"Your pipe-hungry machinist went on that craft, didn't he!" asked the +naval officer, as the crowd began to turn back from the beach. + +"Yes," nodded Captain Jack. "So there's nothing at all to prevent our +getting the 'Hastings' out on the wave as soon as you like." + +"I'm going to send my men up to the hotel, first, for a jolly big feed," +proposed Lieutenant Danvers. "They've been on the rail, eating on the +jump, and now they'll appreciate a good square meal." + +"Suppose we all go up to the hotel for luncheon!" proposed Captain Jack. + +"Then how about having torpedoes aboard when we return?" + +"How many real torpedoes will you want for to-day, Mr. Danvers?" Benson +inquired. + +"Two, besides the dummies, will be plenty." + +"Then I'll run over to Mr. Partridge, the superintendent of the yard, +and he'll have a foreman and a gang attend to it," suggested the young +submarine skipper. + +Accordingly, this was done. Then the party slated for the afternoon +cruise went over to the hotel. By the time that they came back from +the midday meal the two service torpedoes were aboard the "Hastings" +and the target was in readiness to be towed out to sea. + +This "target" was not a handsome-looking affair. It was an old scow, +some thirty feet long and broad of beam, that had once been used, up +the coast, in sea-wall construction work. Mr. Farnum had bought it a +short time before and it now lay at anchor, near the beach, ready to +be towed out to sea for its last service to mankind. The scow was +heavily laden with rock, this being intended to sink the craft's keel +as far as was advisable. The old scow had now something more than four +feet draught, with less than two feet of freeboard. + +Two of the workmen, in an old whaleboat, waited to row the party out to +the "Hastings." Jack was soon able to welcome Lieutenant Danvers on +board the submarine. + +"You can look around all you want, Ewald and Biffens," suggested Mr. +Danvers, "and see if you can find any great differences between this +craft and the 'Pollard' and the 'Farnum.'" + +The two sailors, accordingly, made themselves wholly at home in the +interior of the submarine. + +"Both men have put in tours of duty on the first two boats turned out +by your company," explained the officer. "They know all about the two +Pollard boats that the Navy bought." + +"Then they won't find very much that is different on board the +'Hastings,'" Jack replied. "All that is new here is in the way of a few +more up-to-date little mechanisms and devices. A man used to running +the old 'Pollard' would really be wholly at home here." + +A few minutes, only, were allowed for inspection of the newest submarine +of the lot. By this time the workmen in the small boat had made fast a +towing hawser between the bow of the old scow and the stern towing bitts +of the "Hastings." + +"Use my men all you need to, in casting off, or in boat handling +generally," requested Lieutenant Danvers. Jack therefore ordered Ewald +and Biffens forward on the upper hull to cast loose from moorings. Hal +stood the trick in the engine-room, while Jack himself sat at the wheel +in the tower. + +In another minute, despite her rather heavy tow, the "Hastings" was +nosing briskly out of the harbor. The gasoline engines this little +craft were of a "heavy service" pattern, which adapted the submarine +to the work of towing at need. + +"How far out do you want to go, sir!" asked Captain Jack, as the Navy +lieutenant took a seat beside him in the tower, after Eph and the +sailors had gone below. + +"We want to be sure to be well out of the path of coastwise vessels," +replied Danvers. "That's the main thing, you know. We can't take any +risk of sinking a merchantman while we're having our fun." + +"With this tow, then, it will be three o'clock before we get out where +we really ought to be, sir." + +"That will give us at least two hours of good daylight," nodded Mr. +Danvers. "Of course you know this coast well enough to pick your way +back after dark?" + +"I'd run the craft five times the distance, under water, and hit the +harbor without thought of an accident," spoke young Benson, seriously, +and with no thought of boasting. + +"Jove, my young friend, if you can do a thing like that, you're a +genius at the work," muttered Danvers, after a swift, side glance at +Skipper Jack. + +"I've done as much before," laughed Jack. "Either of my friends could +do it, for that matter." + +"Then you're veritable young kings of the deep!" declared Lieutenant +Danvers, heartily. + +"Oh, we're not wonders," smiled Jack, goodhumoredly; then added, more +seriously, "If we really do anything worth while, my friends and I, +we're to be regarded simply as the products of constant practice." + +"You're modest enough about it," agreed Danvers. + +Presently, the naval officer himself took a hand at managing the +submarine. Jack, knowing that the boat was in fine professional hands, +slipped unconcernedly below, to chat with Hal Hastings, who sat doggedly +by his engines. + +"What's the matter? What makes you look so solemn, old fellow?" asked +the young submarine skipper, when he caught sight of his chum's solemn +face. + +"Oh, you'd laugh, if I told you," smiled Hal. + +"Seeing omens of ill again!" persisted young Benson. + +"I suppose," sighed Hal, "well, I have a sort of premonition." + +"Pre--premo--" stuttered Captain Jack, holding comically to the port +side of his jaw. "Oh, pshaw! Call it a plain United States 'hunch.' +What's the tip the spooks are giving anyway, Hal?" + +Hastings smiled again, though he went on: + +"Oh, it's just a queer sort of notion I have that something is going to +happen to us this afternoon." + +"Right-o," drawled Jack. "You don't have to shove off from that, Hal. +Something is going to happen to us. This afternoon we're going to have +the first drill in the actual firing of submarine torpedoes." + +"Oh, I know that," Hastings admitted, quickly. "But what I see ahead, +or feel as though I see, is some kind of disaster. Now, you'll think +I'm a sailor-croaker, won't you, Jack?" + +"Disaster?" repeated Jack, slowly. "Well, to be sure, we've the outfit +on board for a disaster, if we wanted one. Two real torpedoes that hold, +between them, four hundred pounds of gun-cotton--or danger-calico, as +Williamson would call it. But cheer up, old fellow. There's no danger, +after all. Williamson and his pipe are on the other boat." + +"Oh, of course nothing is really going to happen," laughed Hal. "It is +just the feeling that is over me. That's all." + +It was fully three o'clock by the time Lieutenant Danvers decided they +were far enough out to sea, and far enough from any craft in those +waters. Not a stick or a stack of another vessel showed within ten +miles of them. The scow was accordingly cast loose and allowed to +drift. + +Captain Jack was at the tower wheel again, as Eph and the two sailors +returned from setting the scow loose. + +"We've got to be sure to record one good hit against that old barge of +stone," muttered Lieutenant Danvers, who stood beside the youthful +submarine commander. "The sea is roughening, and I doubt if we could +pick up that scow in tow again. We've got to destroy her, or she'd be +a fearful menace to navigation, drifting about in the night in the path +of incoming vessels." + +"Oh, I guess you'll get rid of her easily enough," spoke Jack, +confidently. "You're a professional at this business, sir." + +"So are the two men with me," nodded the officer. "By the way, Ewald +can just as well come on deck and take the wheel, if you want him to do +so. Then you can go below and see all that we do with a torpedo." + +"Now, that's what I call a great idea," cried Benson, enthusiastically. +"I want to know just how a torpedo is handled at the time of firing." + +"It's the only thing you have left to learn about this business," +smiled the naval officer. Then he passed the word for Ewald. When that +it sailor had taken the wheel, the naval officer and the young submarine +skipper went below. + +"We'll swing in one of the dummy torpedoes, first, of course," announced +Mr. Danvers. + +One of the dummies was, therefore, hauled forward on a truck, then +forced on into the torpedo tube. Jack watched, intently, this part of +the business. + +The torpedo itself was a cigar-shaped affair, with a propeller at the +after end. This propeller was set in motion by means of an engine in +the after part of the torpedo, the engine being so constructed that it +was set in operation at the moment the torpedo left the tube and entered +the ocean outside. The propeller was fitted with apparatus that would +drive the torpedo in a straight line. + +"The torpedo looks like a miniature submarine, doesn't it?" muttered +young Benson. + +"It surely does," nodded the naval officer. "And, since the torpedo has +to travel under water, what better model could have been chosen? Now, +the engines in these dummy torpedoes can be set for two, four, six or +eight hundred yards, and the torpedo, once it enters the water, travels +forward, in a straight line until the engine gives out. That is, the +torpedo travels ahead if it doesn't hit something. So, in actual war +conditions, we would always get nearer to the object than the distance +for which the engine is set to run. The speed of a torpedo like this, +under water, is a good deal better than thirty miles an hour, but the +distance the torpedo can go is naturally short. That is a direct +consequence of its speed. Now, Mr. Benson, would you like to know how +to fire the torpedo, since it is already in the tube?" + +"Certainly, sir," nodded Jack. And then he continued as if reciting a +lesson: "Just give that firing lever at the back of the after port a +quick shove to the right and downward. That releases the charge of +compressed air and forces the torpedo out. At the same instant the +forward port opens, so that the torpedo can be shot out into the water. +The compressed air also serves to keep the sea water from rushing in +through the torpedo tube. When the lever is swung up and back again +that closes the forward port, and it is then safe to open this after +port." + +"You've committed that to memory," laughed the naval lieutenant. + +"Oh, we've often talked this over, all three of us," smiled Jack. + +"Then, since you understand this part so well, Benson," proposed Mr. +Danvers, "perhaps you'd like to go forward, on deck, and see when this +dummy torpedo is fired?" + +"I surely would," agreed the submarine boy "And Eph can just as well +come with me." + +The two submarine boys, therefore, hastened above, out on the platform +deck, and then further forward on the upper hull, until they lay out +along the nose of the "Hastings." + +Danvers reached Ewald's side in the tower, while Biffens waited below, +at the lever, for the firing signal. + +The "Hastings" was now drifting, rather aimlessly, something more than +four hundred yards away from the scow. As the sea was roughening all +the while, the two submarine boys out forward were having a hard time +of it. Added to that, icy spray was falling over them. + +Lieutenant Danvers quickly rang for speed and then brought the submarine +boat within about three hundred yards of the scow, and at a position that +pointed the nose of the "Hastings" at the middle of the scow's hull, the +line of fire making a right angle with the scow. + +"Get ready to watch, out there!" warned the naval officer. + +"Now, Eph," glowed Jack, "we're going to see the thing we've so often +dreamed about! We'll see that dummy torpedo leap forth, like a real +one. For a little way, at least, we ought to see the track of the +torpedo." + +"Feel like betting the dummy will bit the scow?" questioned young Somers, +half doubtfully. + +"Of course it will," retorted Jack Benson, scornfully, "with naval +experts on the job!" + +Lieutenant Danvers gave the firing signal. + +In the silence that followed, the two submarine boys hanging over the +nose of the boat heard just a muffled click below. Then-- + +"There it goes!" shouted Jack Benson, with all the glee in the world. + +Down beneath them, under the nose of the "Hastings" an object shot into +brief view. First the war-head, then the middle, then the tail and +propeller of a fourteen-foot Whitehead torpedo swept away from them, +two or three feet below the surface of the waves. A line of bubbles +came to the surface, showing that the torpedo was headed, straight and +clean, for the stone-laden scow over on the ocean. Then the torpedo, +still under water, passed out of their range of view. + +"Hurrah!" yelled Jack Benson, leaping to his feet with all the glee and +fervor of the enthusiast. "Hurrah!" + +"Hurrah!" bellowed Eph Somers, for the glory of the game had gotten into +his blood, too. Both submarine boys capered up and down on the +platform deck. + +But Lieutenant Danvers sat with left hand on the conning tower steering +wheel, his watch in his right hand. He was counting the seconds. + +"Look out for the signal," called the naval officer, coolly. "When I +tell you, then look out for what happens over at the scow. Er--now!" + +They were too far away to hear the impact, but the two submarine boys +saw a slight commotion in the waters under the scow's rail. Then the +dummy torpedo bounded back, rising and floating on the surface--spent! + +Had that torpedo contained the fighting service charge of two hundred +pounds of gun-cotton it would have shattered and sunk the biggest, +staunchest, proudest battleship afloat. + +"It's uncanny--isn't it?" gasped Jack Benson, feeling an odd shudder +run over him. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +STRUCK BY A SUBMERGED FOE + + +"Yep!" agreed Eph Somers, blaster of day-dreams. "But say?" + +"Well?" demanded Captain Jack. + +"At the same time," muttered Eph, grimly, "I'm glad that scow isn't a +real battleship, with a half a dozen twelve-inch cannon turned on us." + +"Humph!" muttered Jack, dryly, "if that scow were an enemy's battleship, +twelve-inch barkers and all, we'd be twenty feet under the surface, and +we'd be out of sight and out of mind." + +"Quite right," nodded Lieutenant Danvers. "In a contest of that sort +I'd feel fifty times safer here than on the battleship we were after. +Now, Benson, you've seen the first part of it. We have the other +dummy to fire. The real gunner, on a submarine, is the fellow at the +wheel. Do you want to take the wheel, manoeuvre the boat and give the +order for the next dummy shot?" + +"Do I?" uttered Jack Benson. "Just!" + +Orders were then given to place the other dummy torpedo in the tube, and +this done, Jack took his place at the wheel, while Eph Somers and the +lieutenant stood outside. At the naval officer's direction Jack Benson +came up on the other side of the scow, about three hundred yards away, +with the nose of the "Hastings" so pointed that the torpedo dummy could +be delivered straight amidships. + +At just the right moment Captain Jack passed the order to fire. Then he +watched the scow with a strange fascination. Danvers stood, watch in +hand. + +"Now!" he shouted. + +Barely two seconds later the second dummy torpedo rose, a few yards back +from the side of the scow. + +"That torpedo struck, full and fair," nodded Lieutenant Danvers, turning +toward the conning tower. "Mr. Benson, if you always hit as full and +well, you'll be an expert torpedoist." + +"Why, it's nothing but holding the nose of your own boat full on the +other craft, amidships, and the torpedo itself does the rest," uttered +the young submarine skipper. + +"That's it," nodded Lieutenant Danvers. "But, when you're below the +surface, the problem becomes a harder one." + +"But then I'd come up enough to use the periscope, and get the bearings +of the enemy's vessel," declared Benson. "Then I'd drop below, using +the compass for direction, and the number of motor revolutions to give +me the knowledge of distance traveled." + +"That's just the way it is done," agreed Danvers. "After all, it's just +a matter of accurate boat handling, and being able to judge distances +by the eye alone. And now, Mr. Benson, if you'll run over yonder, +carefully, we'll pick up the dummies. After that, we've got to make +as good a shot, with a real torpedo, and sink the scow." + +"And, if you don't, sir--?" smiled the young submarine skipper. + +"Then we'll be guilty of poor shooting, and have to try the second +loaded torpedo," replied the naval officer. "If we miss with the +second, then we'll have to contrive either to tow the scow, or to sink +her somehow. If either of the loaded torpedoes fails to explode, we'll +have to pick it up, at all hazards. If we left a loaded torpedo +floating on the surface of the water, here in the paths of coast +navigation, it would sink the first ship that struck the war-head of +the torpedo." + +The sea, by this time, was rough and whitecapped, and a brisk wind was +blowing down from the north-east. It was no easy task to get a rope +around first one dummy torpedo, and then the other. Yet at last this +was done, and the heavy objects were hoisted aboard and stored below. + +"Now, we'll get off and sink the scow, before dark," muttered Lieutenant +Danvers. + +"Are you going to let me fire the torpedo at her, sir?" demanded Skipper +Jack Benson, eagerly. + +"If you feel sure you can do it," replied the naval officer. "For that +matter, if you fail, there'll be one loaded torpedo left, and I can +take the second shot." + +At a sign from the young skipper Eph hurried below, to relieve Hal +Hastings, who wished to see some of the fun. Hal came up into the +conning tower to take the wheel while Jack Benson slipped below to +direct the loading of the torpedo into the tube. Then Biffens, the +sailor, took his post by the firing lever, while Ewald stood back to +pass the word from the conning tower. + +This loaded torpedo, like the dummies, had been set to run four hundred +yards. Captain Jack, therefore, determined to release the torpedo at +a range of three hundred yards. + +The "Hastings" had drifted somewhat away from the scow, but Jack, one +hand on steering wheel and the other at the signals, ran the submarine +over so that he could head the craft around to deliver a broadside fire +at the scow, at right angles. When he had the "Hastings" in this +position he shouted down: + +"Be ready, Ewald!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +A breathless instant followed, during which the young submarine commander +took his last sight from the conning tower. + +"Fire!" + +"Fire it is, sir." + +Jack and Hal could just barely see, from the tower, the slight commotion +that the torpedo made in the water at the bow when released. + +Hal, watch in hand was counting: "One, two, three, four--" and so on. + +Suddenly there came a low rumble, followed by-- + +Boo-oom! + +The explosion was a dull and sullen one, but loud enough to make the +blood of the submarine boys tingle. A column of spray shot up, followed +by detached whiffs of smoke, for the torpedo had exploded beneath the +surface. + +In the same instant a sound of rending timbers reached their ears. Then +the scow--where was it? Only the waters rolled where the scow had +been. Captain Jack and Hal rubbed their eyes. + +"The same thing would have happened to a battleship," smiled Lieutenant +Danvers, who had come up behind them. "Now, you young men begin to have +something like an idea of what an engine of war you are handling, +because this craft would be much more deadly, and vastly more +nerve-racking to an enemy, because she would approach under water, and +those on the battleship would have little or no means of gauging their +peril. Incidentally, Mr. Benson, I must congratulate you upon the +neatness of the shot." + +"To accept congratulations for that would be like robbing a poor-box in +a church," laughed Jack. "It called for nothing but aiming the nose of +the boat straight." + +"And, even under water," replied Danvers, "it calls for but few more +calculations. With really trained men all through the crew of a +submarine, you can now understand what show the battleship of coming +days will have against a single hostile torpedo boat. Why, the captain +of a torpedo boat, if he has but one torpedo on board, could sail in +under a fleet, pick out his battleship, sink it and then scuttle away, +under water, from the rest of the enemy's fleet." + +"It seems almost like cowardice, doesn't it?" asked Hal Hastings, +soberly. + +"Not exactly," replied Lieutenant Danvers, grimly. "In the first place, +the game of war is to destroy the enemy with as little loss as possible +to yourself. Moreover, the commander and crew of a submarine torpedo +boat, during a naval campaign, would have to take risks enough to make +most men's hair turn gray." + +"I'm not wishing for war," muttered Jack Benson. "Still, if one has +to come, I hope I'll be in command of a torpedo craft that sees service." + +"And I think you'd have your wish, my lad," nodded Lieutenant Danvers. +"Of course, none but regularly commissioned naval officers may command +the craft of the Navy. Still, in our Civil War, and in the War with +Spain, we had to commission a good many volunteers. So, in the event of +another war coming, I don't believe the Navy Department would feel that +it could possibly pass by boys trained as well as you three have been." + +"Are you going to use the other loaded torpedo to-day, sir?" asked Jack. + +"Against _what_?" demanded Danvers. "You've sunk the scow as deep as +the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean." + +"Then I suppose we may as well put back to Dunhaven, sir?" + +"Yes, Benson." + +Jack accordingly signaled for slow speed ahead, turning the nose of the +"Hastings" toward the west. Hal and Eph, as the submarine started back, +took a drill in loading and unloading torpedoes into the tube, performing +this work with one of the dummies, Ewald and Billens assisting. + +Knowing that Hal was not in the engine room, Captain Jack was content +to run along at slow speed. Nor had the boat gone more than two miles +when something struck the bow. + +At the first impact alert Jack Benson felt his heart leap into his +mouth. It was as though the "Hastings" had struck, lightly, on a +reef. Almost by instinct Jack threw the wheel over to port. Something +was rasping, forcefully, under the hull of the submarine. As the helm +went to port that something underneath, whatever it was, sheered off. + +"What was that, Benson?" called up Lieutenant Danvers, sharply. + +"Struck something, sir, I'm sure," Jack called back. + +At the first sound of trouble, Hal Hastings leaped into the engine room. +Lieutenant Danvers sprang up the stairs into the conning tower. He was +in time to find Captain Jack swinging the nose of the "Hastings" around. +Then the youthful commander signaled for the stop and the reverse. + +"Mr. Somers!" shouted Jack, coolly but promptly. + +"Aye, sir," called up Eph. + +"Take a lantern and get down into the compartments along the keel +forward. See whether we're taking in any water." + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +"We struck part of a derelict, or something else submerged," guessed +Lieutenant Danvers. "We're lucky, indeed, if our plates are not +sprung." + +Then he called down to Biffens to follow and aid Eph Somers. + +It was almost dark now. Jack, reaching over, switched on the electric +sidelights outside, and also the white light at the signal masthead. +Then he turned on the searchlight, sending its bright ray through the +gathering darkness. + +"Look over there, sir," muttered Jack, holding the searchlight ray +steadily on an object he believed he saw. "Don't you make out, sir, +bobbing up and down when the waves part, what looks like the stump of +the broken-off mast of a vessel submerged? Is it a death-dealing +derelict in the very path of coastwise navigation!" + +"By Jove, yes!" gasped Lieutenant Danvers, hoarsely. "Your eyes are +sharp, Benson, and your judgment sound. That, then, was what we +struck on--the mast-stump of a water-logged, sunken derelict! If our +underhull plates are sprung, down we go to the bottom!" + +They waited, in dreadful anxiety, for the report of Eph from the region +of the keel plates. + +They were far out to sea, and a submarine cannot carry a lifeboat! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A SUBMARINE'S REVENGE + + +All now waited on Eph's word during the next few moments. + +If the "Hastings," striking on that stub of a submerged mast, had had +her plates so badly sprang that pumping would not drive out the water +as fast as it came in, then this newest of the submarines was doomed +to go to the bottom. + +All that would then remain to those aboard would be to take to the ocean. + +True, they had life-preservers aboard, and with these, officers and men +could keep afloat. + +In the icy waters of a February night, however, with something like +fifteen miles to swim to mainland through an ever-roughening sea, it +was almost impossible that the strongest among them could hope to reach +shore alive. + +Yet, desperately anxious as he was to know the news, Jack Benson did +not desert his post by the steering wheel. Some one must be there. Nor +had Hal thought of leaving the engine room. + +So the naval lieutenant remained with Benson, duplicating, in those +awful moments, the boy's cool courage. + +It was Ewald who presently came running up the stairs to report. + +"Mr. Somers orders me to report that there's a little trickle of water +coming in between two plates about twelve feet abaft of the bow, sir. +But Mr. Somers believes that, even without pumping, we could run +forty miles without serious danger, sir." + +Knowing his friend's ability and good judgment as he did, Jack Benson +stood ready to accept that report, without question. But Lieutenant +Danvers inquired: + +"Did you see the leak, Ewald?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"What do you think about it?" + +"Why, sir, I agree with Mr. Somers." + +"I believe I'll go down and take a look at the leak," announced Danvers, +slowly. + +"Then, while you're gone," said Benson, "I'll keep the searchlight +steadily on what I can see of the top of that mast-stump." + +"Why not keep on in toward the shore?" + +"Because, sir," and Jack's jaws snapped, "if we've been insulted in this +fashion by an old derelict, I don't believe in letting the old derelict +get off so easily, sir." + +Lieutenant Danvers knitted his brow, thoughtfully, as he hurried down +the stairs, then followed Ewald through a steel trapway into the cramped +compartments under the cabin flooring. + +In three or four minutes Mr. Danvers came up again. + +"It's all right," he said. "I can't see that the leak threatens to +become serious, unless we should happen to hit that mast-stump again." + +"I believed it was all right," the young captain replied, quietly, +"after having heard Mr. Somers's report." + +"You three boys certainly stick together and admire each other, don't +you?" laughed Danvers. + +"We've every reason to, sir. We three have been trained together in +this work. No one of the three knows anything that the others don't," +came Benson's matter-of-fact reply. + +"When I went below you made some remark about not letting the derelict +off too easily, Benson. What did you mean?" + +"Why, I believe we ought to get square with that old sunken hulk," +retorted Captain Jack, wheeling around and eyeing the naval officer. + +"Great Scott! You mean that we ought to blow up the derelict?" + +"Isn't it usually the Navy, sir, that gets such jobs to do?" + +"Yes, yes, Benson. But the Navy Department always sends out a vessel +fitted for such work." + +"This is a submarine boat. We have one loaded torpedo left on board. +Don't you think we answer the description of a vessel fitted for +destroying a derelict?" smiled Captain Jack, coolly. "To say nothing +of the itch, for revenge that we feel." + +"It'll be a ticklish business," muttered Danvers, thoughtfully. + +"So is a lot of the Navy's work, isn't it?" persisted Captain Jack. + +"See here, lad, do you really mean that you want to make a sure-enough +job of blowing up the derelict?" + +"That's what I'm staying here for, sir," rejoined Jack, again swinging +the searchlight. "And over there, three hundred yards yonder, I can +still make out, once in a while, that bit of mast. What do you say, +Lieutenant?" + +"Why, if you boys have the grit to go ahead and tackle a job like that +in the night, the Navy isn't going to feel chilled and run away," +laughed Danvers, shortly. "Yet, my boy, do you think you fully +understand the dangers of the undertaking?" + +"I think I do," nodded Captain Jack. + +"It's to be a duel between this submarine and the old derelict. You +can't just hang off like this over here, and shoot at that mast. That +wouldn't do any good." + +"Yes, I know all that," said Jack, eagerly. + +"Then what's your plan, Benson?" + +"Why, sir, we've got, first of all, to sail as close as we dare to that +mast-stump. Then we've got to use a sounding line to find out in which +direction the hull of the sunken derelict lies. We must also get an +idea of the length of the hull. Then, having gotten our figures, we'll +have to glide back a little way, so as to give a right-angle broadside +on at the hull of the derelict. Before firing the torpedo we'll first +have to go far enough below water so that we'll know we're in fair line +with that sunken hull yonder, for we've got to make our one loaded +torpedo do the trick." + +"You've got the figures down all right," nodded Lieutenant Danvers, +thoughtfully. "The risky part is in trying to run over that derelict's +sunken hull in order to locate it and make your soundings. Now, you +run a big chance of running plumb on to some other stump of a mast. +The 'Hastings' may easily get an injury, from the stump of another +mast, that may tear a real hole in our plates and send us all to the +bottom." + +"There's danger to be considered in any submarine game really worth +the while," assented Captain Jack Benson, coolly. "Do you feel then, +Mr. Danvers, that we should be satisfied to drive back to Dunhaven and +content ourselves with wiring the Navy Department news of the derelict +and of her present position?" + +Lieutenant Danvers thoughtfully gazed at the young submarine commander's +face. + +"No," he muttered, at last. "I think the best thing for a fellow like +you, Jack Benson, will be to wade in and get your revenge! And make +it as complete as you can!" + +"All right, sir," nodded Jack. "Thank you. And now, we'll see how +complete a job we can make of it. Mr. Somers!" + +"Aye, aye, sir," answered Eph, from below. + +"Are you going to consult with your crew?" whispered Danvers. + +"They're not the kind of fellows who need consulting," muttered Captain +Jack. "All they want is their orders. Mr. Somers, bring up the +sounding line." + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +In a moment more young Somers was in the conning tower, and Jack, +sounding line in hand, was out on the platform deck, where Lieutenant +Danvers followed him. + +Eph knew, by this time, what was wanted of him. Hal, in the engine +room, was, as yet, ignorant of the game, but all Hal had to do was to +obey engine room signals promptly. + +Sending the submarine craft ahead at very slow speed, Eph steered as +close to the bobbing masthead as the young captain deemed safe. Jack +shouted his orders back as he and Lieutenant Danvers crouched over the +nose of the boat. + +In the rough sea that was running their work was doubly hard. But Eph +kept the searchlight all the time turned in the direction of the top +of the bobbing mast stump. In a circle they went around it, barely +thirty feet from the broken mast, Jack heaving the sounding lead. + +At last he felt it rest on the deck of the sunken derelict. The distance +below was six fathoms--thirty-six feet. + +"Now, we've got the line of the hull," called Benson to the lieutenant. +"Our next job is to find how far back this hull runs under the water." + +This knowledge, also, was gained, at last. Then Jack Benson, rising, +hastened back to the conning tower, followed by Danvers. Jack himself +closed the manhole, while Eph still trained the searchlight through the +darkness of the night. Stormy weather was threatening. + +"Now, hustle below, Eph, and get that loaded torpedo into the tube," +commanded Skipper Jack Benson. + +"My men will help you," added Lieutenant Danvers. + +Jack quickly had his figures made. He knew where the hull lay, in what +direction, and how far below the surface the deck of the sunken +derelict lay. He planned to land the torpedo twelve feet below the +derelict's deck, which, he believed, would strike a full and fair blow. + +"Torpedo's loaded, sir," called Eph, while the "Hastings," under slow +speed astern, was gliding back to get into position for the attack. + +"Station Biffens by the firing lever, then," called down Captain Benson. +"Tell him to fire on the instant that he gets the order. Now, Mr. +Somers, stand by the submerging apparatus. Drop just forty-two feet +below the surface, then report instantly to me." + +"Aye, aye, sir." + +Lieutenant Danvers stood by the submarine boy, intently watching, +listening, and digesting Benson's plan. Yet the naval officer ventured +no interference. + +In another moment the hull of the "Hastings" began to disappear under +the waves. + +"Forty-two feet--sir--and--stopped!" shouted up Eph Somers. + +"Ready to fire!" Jack hailed. + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +"Fire!" + +"Fire it is, sir." + +"Have you fired, Mr. Somers?" rolled down Jack's next question. + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then turn on the compressed air, and bring us to the surface." + +"Aye, aye, sir!" + +The instant that the conning tower stood up, dripping, through the waves, +Jack turned on searchlight again. Slow speed ahead he next signaled. + +As the piercing rays of light gleamed out over the waters before them +the surface of the sea ahead was seen to be covered with floating +litter. + +"Jove, look at the wreckage!" uttered Lieutenant Danvers, jubilantly. +"Everything about that old derelict that could float has come up to +the surface." + +"Do you think the derelict is utterly smashed, sir?" inquired Jack +Benson, respectfully, for this trained naval officer knew more about +such things than he did. + +"That derelict is blown to kindling wood," exclaimed Danvers, himself +manipulating the searchlight as they sailed through a sea littered with +small wreckage. "That derelict will never menace any skipper afloat, +from now on. Benson, lad, you did a wonderfully keen job." + +"You don't think there'd be any risk, then, in sailing back and forth +amid this wreckage?" asked Jack. + +"Risk? Not a bit," retorted Danvers. "Why, look over there!" as he +swung the searchlight in a new direction. "There's that submerged +mast-stump, free of the wreck and floating horizontally, now." + +Nor was it long before it was clear to trained eyes that the sunken +derelict had been efficiently blown up. That water-logged ghost of a +ship would never again be a source of peril to navigators. + +"Now, you can turn your nose for Dunhaven, and with a clear conscience," +chuckled Lieutenant Danvers. "And, while you're doing that, I'm going +below for another look at the little leak." + +Jack ran the "Hastings" the first few miles of her homeward course. +Then he called Eph Somers to the wheel and went below to relax. + +It was well on toward eight o'clock when the "Hastings" ran into the +little harbor at Dunhaven and made moorings. The night watchman of the +yard rowed out to meet them, bringing the news that Mr. Farnum, in the +"Benson," had picked up the crew of the "Mary Bond" from two small boats +at sea. + +There was a light in the office, so Jack's party went inside. There +they found Jacob Farnum at his desk, putting the finishing touches to +a telegram. + +"By Jove, I'm glad we went out after the poor fellows of the 'Mary +Bond,'" cried Mr. Farnum, wheeling around. "We found them in sore +straits, in two small boats, with only a pair of oars to each boat, +and the sea roughening up every minute. They lost their fishing smack. +Their boat struck on the stump of a mast of a sunken derelict. The +smack sprung a big leak, this morning, and went down. I've just written +a telegram to the Navy Department, Mr. Danvers, advising them of the +location of the derelict as well as I could gather it from the captain +of the late 'Mary Bond.'" With this, he handed Danvers the telegram +he had written. + +Lieutenant Danvers glanced at the telegram, and then handed it back +with a smile. + +"What do you mean, sir?" demanded Jacob Farnum, wonderingly. + +"The telegram isn't necessary--that's all," replied the naval officer, +with a smile. "We encountered that same sunken derelict--and Jack +Benson blew her to smithereens!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE MYSTERIOUS ORDER COMES + + +That night a machinist was stationed aboard the "Hastings" to watch the +in-coming of water through the slight leak, and to apply the pump +occasionally. + +In the morning the submarine was hauled up into an improvised drydock +and her hull plates examined. It was Lieutenant Danvers's first chance +to realize how superbly these Pollard boats were built and put together. +He examined the hull with unbounded enthusiasm. Then a gang of workmen +started in to replace the two injured plates. + +For the next three days the "Benson" was used in target practice. Jacob +Farnum scurried up and down the coast, finding and buying suitable old +craft for targets. + +All three of the submarine boys had ample practice in the firing of +torpedoes. After it was all over there were but four of the loaded +torpedoes left in the shed labeled "Danger." + +"If you could only have a little more practice," grumbled Williamson, +good-humoredly, "this would soon be a safe town for a fellow to take a +quiet smoke in." + +The "Hastings" was now in the water once more, as sound and staunch as +on the first day she was launched. + +Then came a few days of idleness. Lieutenant Danvers left Dunhaven, +intending apparently to return soon. Ewald and Biffens, the two sailors, +were quartered at the hotel at government expense, and were likely to +enjoy themselves until orders came. + +Eph went home for two or three days. Jack and Hal slept on board the +"Benson," while Williamson quartered himself aboard the "Hastings," +which craft no longer carried any torpedoes. + +One afternoon, as Jack Benson was strolling through the shipyard, Jacob +Farnum, in the doorway of the office building, called to the young +skipper. + +"I suppose both boats are ready, Jack?" asked the shipbuilder. + +"Quite, sir," nodded Benson. + +He did not inquire for what they were expected to be ready. Jacob +Farnum was one who liked to plan by himself, and to announce a new move +only when he was ready for it. + +"All right, lad," nodded Farnum. "Keep both boats ready for any instant +move that may be required of them. That's all." + +Again young Benson nodded, then strolled on out of the yard. Up on the +Main street of the village he encountered his chum. + +"There's something in the wind, Hal, for the boats," Jack announced. + +"All right," nodded Hal. "We're ready when needed." + +Nor did either one of them waste any time in wondering what the new move +was to be. When Jacob Farnum wanted them to know he would tell them and +not before. + +The chums visited a moving picture show for an hour. Then, tiring of +that, they came out into the street. The first, man they encountered, +almost, was Lieutenant Danvers, in citizen dress. + +"Back from your trip, sir?" Jack asked. + +"Yes. Has Farnum told you what's in the wind?" + +"He has only given us a hint, sir, that something may happen." + +"Oh!" replied the naval officer, next adding: "That's rather queer on +the whole." + +"Not at all, sir," replied young Benson. "Mr. Farnum has a habit of +telling us things only when he's ready." + +"Yet when--" began Danvers, but checked himself. + +"No matter what is in the wind, Mr. Danvers, there's no real need of +posting us about anything until the time comes. Suppose Mr. Farnum +wants us to start for China within an hour? The galley cupboard is +already as full of provisions as it will hold. Both boats are in the +best possible trim. We need only time, perhaps, to fill the gasoline +tanks as full as they'll hold. Then we're ready to cast off and sail +far the first stopping place on the route." + +"You're great fellows for system, then. So I understand why Mr. Farnum +doesn't have to post you far in advance." + +"He certainly doesn't have to," Jack relied. + +"Where are you going? Down to the yard?" + +"Not yet. Mr. Farnum hasn't given us any instructions about hanging +around." + +"Oh!" responded Lieutenant Danvers, with a quizzical smile. "Well, I +must be leaving you, now." + +Hal gazed after the shore-bound naval officer for a few moments, then +observed, dryly: + +"I'm not a bit curious. Are you, Jack?" + +"Of course not," smiled the young skipper. "All I want to know is what's +in the air so suddenly." + +"Going back to the yard earlier?" + +"No; later," retorted Benson. "What is the use of letting folks suppose +they have our curiosity aroused?" + +In fact, when evening came on, instead of going to the "Benson" for +supper, Jack and Hal stopped at the hotel. + +Ewald and Biffens were there, at one of the tables, but the sailors +seemed to be eating in more haste than usual. Then, as they left the +dining room, they saluted the young captain and engineer. + +"Hurrying back to the yard, sir?" asked Ewald. + +"No," said Jack, quietly. + +"That's queer. Them's our orders. We're going now, sir," replied Ewald. + +"You and I appear to be the only two in Dunhaven who don't know what is +up," observed Hal Hastings, dryly. + +"I don't believe Ewald or Biffens know what is on hand," Jack answered. +"They've orders to report back in haste. That's all." + +"Then hadn't we better hurry back to the yard, too?" inquired Hastings. + +"No; we haven't any orders." + +"But Mr. Farnum may be wondering where we are." + +"Then the sailors can tell him; they know." + +Jack dawdled over his supper. + +"Going back to the yard now?" asked Hal. + +"No; to the bookstore." + +"Hm!" muttered Hal. "I begin to think you're going to keep Mr. Farnum +guessing, to pay him back in his own coin." + +"No; I'm going up to the store to pick out a small stack of books. Hal, +I believe we're going on a cruise, and I mean to have something to +read." + +"I wonder if you know more than you've told me?" mused Hal, aloud. + +"Not a blessed thing. I'm on the guessinglist, and I'm doing the best +I know how at guessing." + +Hal didn't say any more, but accompanied his chum to the book-store. +There was a package for each of them to carry when they came out. Then +they headed down, toward the shipyard. + +It was well on toward one o'clock by the time that the chums stepped +through the gate into the yard. + +"Mr. Farnum is still at his office. That's late for him," remarked Hal. + +"Maybe some one has him on the guessinglist, too," laughed Benson + +The night watchman came forward out of a shadow. + +"Boss wants to see you young gentlemen," announced the watchman. + +So Jack and Hal turned in there. As they entered the office a scene of +"solid comfort" met their eyes. Shipbuilder and naval officer were +lounging in easy chairs, smoking Havanas until the air was thick and +white with the smoke. + +"Sailing orders, Jack," announced Farnum. + +"All right, sir," nodded the young skipper, looking at his watch. "I can +pull out inside of twelve minutes." + +"But you don't have to," laughed Farnum. "You have until morning. +Where do you suppose you're going?" + +"I don't know, sir." + +"Curious, Jack?" + +"I don't care where we're going," Benson smiled back. "When it's a +matter of business all parts of the earth look alike to me." + +Lieutenant Danvers laughed heartily. + +"Benson, lad," exclaimed the naval officer, "you've got the real make-up +to serve in the Navy. It's a pity we had to lose you." + +"Don't be too sure yet, sir, that the Navy has escaped having me," +smiled back Skipper Jack. + +"You don't start until eight in the morning," went on the shipbuilder. +"Pollard got back this evening, and he goes with us. We take both the +'Benson' and the 'Hastings.' Eph will have to command one of the boats, +I suppose?" + +"Yes, sir; and he'll have to be notified at once, too," replied the +young submarine commander. + +"He's on one of the craft now," replied Mr. Farnum. "Lieutenant Danvers +goes with us, but he's a guest, only, and will not have to help in +handling the boats. His two men, Ewald and Biffens, will take steering +turns. We've a four hundred and eighty mile sail before us, down to +Groton Bay." + +"I know of the place, sir," nodded Jack, without emotion or enthusiasm. +But Jacob Farnum's next words all but lifted the submarine boys from +their feet. + +"Jack, my boy, and you, too, Hal, at Groton Bay you will have to make +the very efforts of your lives. We're to go through an official test +for the United States Government. We shall be in competition with five +other types of submarine boats--the Rhinds, the Seawold, the Griffith, +and the Blackson and Day. We shall have to meet--and I hope, +vanquish--all the recognized types of submarine boats made in the +United States." + +"And we will beat them, too!" glowed Jack Benson, his eyes flashing and +his fists clenching. + +"By the way, Jack," continued Mr. Farnum, "I had two applications for +work this afternoon, from men who appear to know all about gasoline +marine engines. As we'll be shorthanded for such a long cruise, do you +suppose it would be worth while to look these fellows over and make up +our minds about them?" + +"Great Dewey--no!" burst, vehemently, from the young submarine captain. +"If we're going into the test of our lives--for our very lives, I might +say--then we don't want aboard any strangers who show up looking for +jobs at the last moment. No, sir; I won't have them aboard--that is, +not if I go, too!" + +"I guess that's sensible enough," nodded Mr. Farnum. "Well, get aboard, +boys. Lieutenant Danvers will be out by ten o'clock. Don't lie awake +to-night, thinking too hard of what's before you." + +"Don't you expect us to, sir," smiled Captain Jack. "We need our sleep +to-night, if we've got such work ahead of us. It's big, work, sir." + +"Big enough," nodded Jacob Farnum. "If we come out of this big official +test with all the points of the game, then Uncle Sam is likely to buy +all the submarine boats we can make for a couple of years to come--and +our fortunes will be made--yours, too, boys!" + +This talk of the boys' fortunes being at stake was not a matter of idle +words. Jack, Hal and Eph well understood that, if they came out +successful, they would also be at least moderately well off. Messrs. +Farnum and Pollard were not of the kind to be niggardly in giving +rewards fairly won. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +JUDAS CO. INTRODUCE THEMSELVES: + + +Groton Bay, as every student of geography knows, is a nearly landlocked, +well sheltered body of water, some seven miles long and three wide. At +the mouth of the Groton river stands Colfax, a city of more than thirty +thousand inhabitants. + +This was about all that the submarine boys knew of their destination, +until they arrived in the bay on the afternoon of the day after they +left, Dunhaven. + +Their run down had been a continuous one. Jack had had Biffens to +relieve him at the wheel, while Mr. Farnum had helped Hal in the engine +room. Besides, Besides, Lieutenant Danvers had stood a few tricks at +the wheel. + +While Jack came in the "Benson," which carried the two remaining loaded +torpedoes, Eph had handled the "Hastings," with Ewald as relief. +Williamson had handled the engines of the latter boat. David Pollard +standing relief engine room watch. + +The work had been hard and confining. It was a relief to all hands when +they found themselves heading into Groton Bay. + +Not far from the city water front lay two United States gunboats, the +"Chelsea" and the "Oakland." Near the gunboats a fleet of seven other +submarine craft lay at moorings. + +"We're not the only crowd, then," mused Jacob Farnum, "that has seen fit +to enter more than one boat. I shall have to get busy in the hunt for +information." + +"I'm not much worried about the triumph of the Pollard boats over +competitors," declared Danvers, generously. "And, if anything can win +for you, Mr. Farnum, it's the having of such enthusiasts as your +submarine boys to handle your boats in the official tests." + +"Oh, I can depend upon my boys," replied Jacob Farnum, quickly. "I know +all about them." + +Yet, as the shipbuilder gazed from the conning tower at the rival +submarines actual drops of cold sweat oozed out on his forehead. +Success meant so much to this shipbuilder, who had all his capital, to +the last penny, invested in this submarine game. + +"The worst of it is, we've got to keep on the lookout for dirty tricks!" +groaned the shipbuilder, to himself. "We are willing to play fair to +the last gasp. No doubt some of the other competing submarine builders +feel the same way about it. Yet, with so many rivals in the field, +there are sure to be one or two rascally fellows who won't consider +any trick too low to give them an advantage." + +Though Mr. Farnum had no particular rival, or rivals, in mind, his fears, +as was afterwards proven, were only too well founded. + +"Take the wheel, please, Mr. Farnum," Jack, begged. He ran down the +steps to call: + +"On deck, Biffens!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" replied the sailor, scrambling to obey. + +Jack was out on the platform deck, megaphone in hand, by the time that +his employer ran up rather close to the "Chelsea." + +"Will you direct us to our moorings, sir?" Jack shouted to the watch +officer aboard the gunboat. + +"Proceed slowly east. Our launch will follow and show you your +moorings," came the reply. Then the launch glided around the stern of +the gunboat, leading the way. + +Ten minutes later the "Benson" and the "Hastings" were moored, at the +extreme eastern end of the line of submarine craft. + +Then Hal, mopping his face from the engine room heat, came up on deck +for a breath of air. + +"I don't suppose we can get ashore," murmured young Hastings, gazing +wistfully at the city beyond. + +"No," muttered Jack, shaking his head. "We're short-handed as it is, +and we've got to be on hand to watch these boats. There are too many +of the enemy about, in the shape of rival builders and their employees, +and among them there may be some mean tricksters who'd do anything in +their power to put the Pollard boats out of the running in the tests +to come. No; I reckon we won't see much of the shore, except from +our decks, though it is mighty cramped and confining on one of these +small craft." + +Hal took a couple of turns up and down the deck. No one, until he has +tried it, can realize how cramped such small craft are when one has to +remain any length of time aboard. + +Suddenly Hal paused, pointing landward. + +"Great Scott!" he gasped. "Look who's here!" + +A roomy whaleboat was approaching them. In it, as passengers, sat +Grant Andrews, foreman, and five workmen from the home yard. + +"What can have happened?" wondered Captain Jack, as he and his chum +waved their hands in greeting; then stood staring. + +"Surprised, eh, lads?" laughingly demanded Jacob Farnum, who had stolen +up behind them. + +"Yes; what's wrong?" asked Jack. + +"Nothing," replied the shipbuilder. + +"Then what are Andrews and the other men doing here?" + +"Do you notice," hinted Mr. Farnum, "that the men with Andrews are all +picked from among our older, trusted shipyard men." + +"Yes, sir. That's true." + +"Well, in the first place," pursued Farnum, "if any sudden repairs, +fixings or other work are required in a hurry, while we're here, we +have a fine lot of our own men to attend to it. Before leaving I told +Grant to bring these men with him. Then they'll serve another purpose. +I want you youngsters to be keyed up to your best performances all the +time we're here. That you can't do if you're kept confined closely +aboard until your very souls ache. So, as much of the time as is +wise, you young fellows will be ashore, stretching your legs, and Grant +Andrews and his men will be on board as guards." + +"That's great!" glowed Jack. "And mighty considerate of you, too, sir." + +"Considerate? Not a bit of it!" retorted Jacob Farnum, half indignantly. +"Jack Benson, I want to drain the last bit of performance out of you +youngsters that I possibly can while we're here. That's why I am going +to take some good care of you, also. Right this way, Grant!" + +The hail was directed at the foreman. The whaleboat put in alongside +of the "Benson," and the foreman with two of his men came aboard. + +"And now, everyone else over the side to go ashore!" called the +shipbuilder. + +This order was quickly obeyed. Then the whaleboat continued on over to +the "Hastings," where Eph and his companions were taken off and the +remaining three workmen from the home yard left aboard as guards. + +Mr. Farnum had already ascertained that the naval board which was to be +in charge of the tests was quartered at the leading hotel on shore. +Hence, in landing, the shipbuilder was really killing two birds with a +single stone, as he intended to report at once to the head of the +board for whatever instructions the latter had to give. + +"We may as well go up, to the hotel in style," announced Mr. Farnum, +when the entire party, the naval lieutenant included, had landed at the +wharf. The two sailors, Ewald and Biffens, had already gone away to +places of their own choosing. + +There were three or four automobiles for hire near the wharf. Two of +these Mr. Farnum engaged for his own party. In five minutes more they +stood about in the handsome lobby of the Somerset House while their host +registered for the party. + +Jack, Hal and Eph stood at ease, some distance from the men of the party. +Despite their easy attitudes there was yet a certain military erectness +about them which was heightened by the handsome, natty uniforms that +they wore. + +At the further end of the hotel lobby was a doorway before which stood +a folding screen. Past that was a clump of potted palms. + +Behind the palms stood a man who, once seen, was not likely to be +forgotten. He was not a handsome man. About fifty years of age, he +was unusually stout; and, though his clothing was of expensive texture, +it fitted him badly. On his upper lip was a heavy moustache, now +iron-gray. His face was red, almost bloated. There were heavy pouches +under his eyes that told of many hours of senseless, vicious dissipation. +A small wart on the left side of the man's nose emphasized his lack of +good looks. Though the face was large, the eyes were small, beady, and +often full of cunning. There was some iron-gray hair at each side of +the head; the top was bald. + +This man was John C. Rhinds, head of the Rhinds Submarine Company. Three +of the boats now at anchor in Groton Bay were his--or, rather, his +company's, though John Rhinds owned nearly all of the stock in the +company. + +So far, Rhinds had not succeeded in selling a submarine craft to the +Navy Department. Twice he had been on the point of a sale, but each +time the government had decided upon a Pollard boat, instead. + +John C. Rhinds loved money. He was resolved, at any cost, to make the +government buy several of his boats. And he was utterly unscrupulous. + +As he stood behind the palms, looking toward the group of new arrivals, +Rhinds's little eyes seemed to grow smaller. He knew the members of +this party, though none of them as yet knew Rhinds. But the cunning +man had made it his business to find out all about the people whom he +hoped to beat in the coming game. + +"Here you are, Radwin!" + +Mr. Rhinds almost hissed the summons, calling to his side a man of some +thirty years of age, tall, dark, handsome, slender and wearing his fine +clothes with an air of distinction. + +At first glance one would be inclined to like the appearance of Fred +Radwin. A closer study of the somewhat shifty eyes and general reckless +expression might have turned one skilled in human nature against Mr. +Fred Radwin, who was secretary to the Rhinds Company. + +"That's the crowd, right over there, that have sold two boats under our +noses to the Navy Department," continued Rhinds, a snarl framing about +his thick, ugly lips. "That's the crowd we've got to beat." + +"Then those young chaps must be the three young submarine officers with +such fine records," remarked Fred Radwin, in an undertone. + +"They are," nodded Rhinds, slowly. "They're bright youngsters, too. I +wish we had them on our side." + +"Couldn't they be lured over into our employ, then?" asked Radwin. + +"You don't know the youngsters. They're full of fool notions about +loyalty to the Farnum Pollard crowd. And, besides, the boys have an +interest in the rival company." + +"Couldn't we offer the boys a bigger interest with us?" suggested Radwin, +as he peered through the palms at the other submarine group. + +"No!" retorted Rhinds, sharply. "I know about that crowd. You don't. +Listen to me." + +"I'm listening," said Fred Radwin. + +"We've got to make the acquaintance of that whole crowd, Fred. We've +got to get personally acquainted with them all. That will be easy +enough, I think. Then we've got to lay our plans. The Pollard boats +must have no show whatever in the coming tests, do you understand? +Their craft must balk, or behave badly. We must destroy all naval +confidence in Pollard boats. Then we must engineer matters so that +none of that crowd will be fit to find out what ails their boats--in +time, anyway. The easiest point of attack will be the boys themselves. +It is absolutely necessary to get them out of the game some way or +other--I don't care what! Radwin, you're fertile enough in ideas, +and reckless enough in deeds. This is to be your task--put the Pollard +boats and those submarine boys wholly out of the running! First of +all, we'll get acquainted with them. Come along!" + +The Farnum party were just turning away, to follow a bell-boy to the +rooms assigned to them upstairs, when John C. Rhinds, his face beaming +craftily, approached them, followed by Radwin. Rhinds introduced +himself to Farnum, then presented Radwin as secretary to the Rhinds +Company. + +"We're rivals in a way, of course," declared Mr. Rhinds. "But we want +to be good-natured, friendly rivals, my dear Farnum. We hope to see +a good deal of you all while here." + +Jacob Farnum replied with equal cordiality. When it came Jack Benson's +turn to be introduced, Rhinds seized him by the hand, patting his +shoulder. + +"Captain Benson?" he repeated. "The brainiest young man in +America--with two chums who run him a close race. We must all dine +together to-night," purred this Judas of the submarine boat world. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +EPH SOMERS PLAYS GALLANT + + +"I don't know when I've enjoyed myself as much," exclaimed Rhinds, +looking round beamingly over the dinner party in one corner of the +dining room. + +Lieutenant Danvers was not there, having pleaded another engagement. But +Rhinds and his lieutenant, Radwin, Messrs. Farnum and Pollard and all +three of the submarine boys were around the big table. Radwin had +succeeded in seating himself between Jack and Hal. + +The dinner had been a fine one. Only one hitch had occurred; that was +when Mr. Rhinds, at the beginning of the meal, had tried to order several +bottles of wine. + +"Just a moment, Mr. Rhinds," Farnum broke in. "None of the wine for us, +thank you." + +"Oh, then, some lighter kind of wine," proposed Mr. Rhinds, anxiously. +"Something good, in which we can all pledge one another." + +"None of that stuff, according to our way of thinking, is any good," +replied Farnum, with a good-natured smile. + +"Well, perhaps not for the boys," conceded the host of this dinner. "But +for the rest of us, as business men ready to cement a friendship." + +"Alcohol isn't cement," replied Mr. Farnum, mildly. "At least, not with +our party. The time was, I admit, Mr. Rhinds, when business men often +tried to cement a business friendship with wine or liquor. But those +times have gone by. Drinking is out of date, nowadays. The keenest and +most dependable business men are those who do not drink. In fact, I may +go a little further, and say that, in our business at Dunhaven, we have +come to the point where we no longer have any dealings with business men +whom we know to drink. You will understand, of course, that this is said +without criticism of whatever views you yourself may entertain." + +"Oh, well, then," grunted Rhinds, much taken back by the fairly spoken +words of his rival. "I dare say there was too much drinking in the old +days. Yes, Farnum, I am much inclined to agree with you, and we will do +without the wine." + +None the less, it was plain that their host was much annoyed. + +"I want to get at the members of the naval board," declared Mr. Farnum, +toward the end of the meal. "I want to find out what is planned in the +tests that are to take place here." + +"The members of the board," replied Mr. Rhinds, "are the three men, in +citizen dress, who are at the sixth table down from here. They came into +their dinner about ten minutes ago. As to to-morrow, I can tell you +that, beginning at eleven o'clock, all the submarine boats entered are +to take a straight, out-to-sea speed sail for six hours. The gunboat, +'Chelsea' will start the fleet, and the 'Oakland' will go along with the +racers." + +"That's short time for us," muttered Mr. Farnum, uneasily. + +"Luckily, sir, we're ready, at a single moment's notice," interposed +Captain Jack Benson. + +"As soon as we get through," proposed Mr. Rhinds, easily, "I'll take you +over and present you to Captain Magowan and his associates on the board." + +"That is kind of you," nodded Mr. Farnum, gratefully. + +Accordingly, a few minutes later, Mr. Rhinds arose, sauntering, cigar in +mouth, over to the table of the officers of the naval board. He spoke +with them a few moments, then returned. + +"Mr. Farnum, and Mr Pollard," announced Rhinds, "Captain Magowan and his +associates invite you to come over and sit at their table. Radwin, will +you look after our young friends? See whether you can show them any +courtesies." + +A highly significant look passed between the portly rascal and his +secretary. None of the Farnum party, however, noted it. + +"Well, what shall we do, boys?" inquired Radwin, genially, as, the four +sauntered down the lobby toward the hotel entrance. + +"I reckon taking things easily and restfully will suit us as well as +anything," smiled Jack. "That is, unless you have some plan you +particularly wish to suggest." + +"Well," continued Radwin, thoughtfully, "the town is rather full of +sailors, just at present, and they're making the nights lively in some +sections. Do you care to go around with me, and see what the sailors are +doing to drive dull care away?" + +"Well, that is a question," said Jack Benson quickly. "We're boys, you +know!" + +"Sensible young fellows," cried Fred Radwin, in a tone so full of +approval as to disarm all suspicion. "Then, for a while, what do you say +if we take window seats here near the entrance, and note whatever may be +passing on the street? By that time your employers may be through with +the board members and come out." + +"Why not go outside in the air, and walk up and down the block?" +suggested Jack. + +"Excellent!" agreed Radwin, readily. He accompanied them outside, +though, a few moments later, he excused himself, saying that he had to go +to the nearest drugstore to write a short letter and post it. + +"What do you think of Radwin?" Hal asked. + +"Why, I guess he's a good deal the sort of fellow that Rhinds wants," +Captain Jack answered, slowly. + +"Don't you like Rhinds?" demanded Eph. + +"Now, would it be just right to say that?" asked Jack, slowly. "Mr. +Rhinds has tried to be very pleasant to us to-night. So has Mr. Radwin. +Probably they're both good fellows, in their own way. Only--" + +"Well?" insisted Hal. + +"Why, to tell the truth," confessed Captain Benson, "Rhinds impresses me +as being just a bit coarse, and Radwin a little too smooth and slick. +To put it another way, they're not just our kind of people. That is, +they're not at all in the same class with gentlemen like Jake Farnum and +Dave Pollard. Now, that's every word I'm going to say against Rhinds or +Radwin, for they've certainly been agreeable to us to-night." + +Chatting thus, as they strolled slowly back and forth, none of the +submarine boys noted how long Radwin was gone. As a matter of fact, that +enterprising, rapidly-moving young man was away for nearly half an +hour--and he was tremendously busy on their account. + +The Somerset stood on one of the older, quieter streets of Colfax. At +this time of the night there were not many passers. + +"Here comes Radwin," discovered Hal, at last. "I had almost forgotten +that he was coming back to us." + +"I thought he had forgotten," laughed Jack. + +Then all three turned to greet Mr. Radwin. + +"How's this?" he asked. "Haven't Mr. Rhinds and your friends come out +yet?" + +"They must be talking, yet, with the officers of the naval board," +suggested Eph Somers. + +"They're sure to be out presently," nodded Radwin, after he had walked +the submarine boys to the next corner. "At least, Mr. Rhinds is, for he +always takes a walk in the evening, after dinner. Now, I've discovered +the place where they serve the finest hot soda--chocolate, at that. I +wanted to invite all hands there. But I'm afraid Rhinds and your +employers may come out and be looking for us. Benson, do you feel like +remaining here, to guide them along, while I take your comrades up to +the place? You can tell the older men where we are, and then Mr Rhinds +will bring you all around. He knows the place. Come along, Somers and +Hastings. Benson, bring the older ones as soon as you see them come out +of the hotel." + +"Why, say, Jack, you go along now," urged Eph. "You know I don't care +much about chocolate, and you do. So run along. I'll stay right here +until I see our people." + +"Good boy, Eph!" murmured Jack, gratefully. "You know my weakness for +hot chocolate. I feel as if I could punish four or five of 'em right +now." + +As he turned away with Jack and Hal, Mr. Radwin looked rather +disappointed. In fact, he was exceedingly disappointed, for he had hoped +to leave Captain Jack Benson at this corner on the block below the hotel. + +The street was practically deserted there. Yet barely two minutes had +passed when, about a block away, in the opposite direction from that of +the hotel, Eph heard a quick little feminine scream. + +Wheeling about, Somers saw something that aroused his blood. + +A girl, or young woman, he could not tell which, at the distance, cowered +back from a short, thick-set young man who had raised his hand to strike +her. + +The next instant Eph saw the blow fall. Again the young woman cried out, +though not very loudly. But the brute seemed on the point of once more +striking her. + +"Wow!" sputtered Eph, angrily. "We'll see about that." + +On the run Somers went down the short block. The bully, hearing him +come, turned for a look, then darted away down the side street. + +"I--I beg your pardon," stammered Eph, as the young woman turned, +flashing a look at him through a thin veil. "I--I don't want to +interfere, but--" + +"I'm very glad you did, sir," responded the young woman, in a voice +whose sweetness charmed the submarine boy. "That wretch--" + +"I wonder if I can overtake him and thrash him," pondered Eph, glancing +down the side street. The bully had disappeared. + +"Oh, don't think of that," begged the girl, in a quick, anxious way. "I +don't want to set people's tongues to wagging." + +"No; of course not," Eph assented, quickly. + +"But, if you will escort me safe home--" + +"Gladly, miss," nodded young Somers, again lifting his cap. + +"Oh, that will be so kind of you," she murmured. "For I am afraid Tom +might be waiting for me, on the way to my home--" + +"If he gets within hailing distance," uttered Eph, valiantly, "I'll plant +a torpedo fist under him!" + +"Will you let me take your arm?" begged the girl; for, from her voice and +her slight, trim she appeared to be no more. That she was indeed afraid +was testified to by the way in which her hand trembled on his arm. It +was such a tender little hand, too! Eph was not a flirt. He did not +give much thought to girls, as a rule, but he wasn't going to see one +struck by a street bully. + +So he walked along, down the side street, turning, also, at two or three +other corners, talking cheerily to make the girl forget her late fright. +Her face Eph couldn't see very well, on account of the veil, but he +decided that the young woman possessed beautiful, flashing eyes, as he +caught their expression dimly through the veil. + +Down another quiet side street they were passing, when they came to the +head of an alley-way. Just as they reached it the girl let go of Eph's +arm, uttering a little scream as she darted away. Eph didn't follow her. +He found himself face to face with the thick set young man, Tom. Just +of that worthy were two other sturdy-looking young hoodlums. + +"Now, you an' me have got something to settle, younker," glared Tom. + +"All right," retorted Eph, undauntedly. "But fair play--one at a time." + +Eph's fists were up, and he sailed in, fighting manfully, sailor-fashion. +Then the other two closed in behind young Somers. He was struck on the +back of the head, and darkness came over him and he fell insensible to +the ground. + +When luckless Eph came to his senses he found himself lying, bound hand +and foot, on a pile of rags. The darkness around him was complete. + +"Well, this is a puzzle to unravel!" muttered the astounded submarine +boy. + +Yet, think and ponder as he would, it never occurred to him to see, in +his misfortune, the guiding hand of Fred Radwin! + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ONE, TWO, THREE--A FULL BAG! + + +At the hot soda place even Jack Benson, fond as he was of such +decoctions, at last had his fill. + +"Funny Eph hasn't brought the others here," muttered Jack. + +"Pardon me, a moment," urged Radwin, rising. "I'll be back directly." + +Radwin slipped out to the sidewalk, for he had seen a hovering figure at +the curb. However, Radwin kept on down the street, turning in at the +third doorway beyond. Now, the hovering figure sauntered past. + +"We got the cub," whispered the prowler. + +"Good!" whispered Radwin. "Then you're ready for the rest?" + +"Huh! It'll be like sleeping on a haymow, if the other two are as easy +as that one was." + +"All right, then! Be off, and see that you do your work well!" + +With that Radwin walked briskly back and into the hot soda place. + +"I'm ashamed to tell you what took me out," he laughed, easily. "Boys, +after writing that letter in the drug-store, I forgot to mail it, and +just felt it in my coat pocket. Well, it's safe in the mail-box, at +last." + +"We were just saying," Hal announced, "that it's funny the others haven't +come along. We better go back and get Eph, anyway?" + +"It will be a good idea," nodded Radwin. + +Of course, when they reached the corner at which they had left young +Somers, he was not there. + +"I wonder if he has gone back and joined the party at the hotel?" +queried Hal. + +"We can soon find out," declared Jack. + +"Suppose you and I walk down there, then, Hastings?" suggested Radwin. +"We can leave Benson here, to tell Somers where we are, if he comes back +this way." + +"You wait here, Hal," suggested Jack. "There's a little matter I want +to speak to Mr. Farnum about, anyway." + +So Hastings was left at the corner. He saw Jack and the Rhinds man go +in through the hotel entrance. + +Then, hearing steps, Hal turned to see two sailors approaching. They +wore the uniform of the United States Navy. Hastings regarded them with +the friendly interest that he, like most other Americans, always felt +for sailors. But the two sailors came along, talking earnestly, and did +not appear to see young Hastings, who stood in close to the wall. + +"When I first seen him fall," one of the sailors was saying, "I mistook +him for a Navy officer. He was pretty young, but the uniform fooled me." + +"He had the uniform, all right but no signs of rank on it," nodded the +other sailor, thoughtfully. "Was he much hurt?" + +"Oh, it won't kill him," replied the first sailor. "But--" + +"I beg your pardon," interposed Hal, springing in front of the pair. +"It has just struck me that you are speaking of a comrade of mine." + +"Well, he had a uniform on, just like your'n, replied the first sailor, +looking Hal Hastings over quickly. + +"Only the young feller we're talkin' about has red hair," added the +second. + +"What has happened to him?" demanded Hal, a feeling of alarm sweeping +over him. + +"Oh, he got in a little fight--that's all," responded the first sailor. +"Bit off a little bit bigger chunk of fight than he could handle. He's +kinder dazed and silly, now, and talkin' about queer things. Half an +hour more, though, messmate, and I guess he'll be able to walk down to +the water front all right." + +Eph knocked out and dazed--among strangers! That was the sole picture +that appeared to Hal Hastings's mind at that moment. + +"He's a friend of mine--messmate, at that," Hal declared, quickly. +"Where is the place? Or, better still, can you take me to it? I'll +reward you." + +"Oh, stow the reward, messmate," replied one of the sailors. "We +fellers that foller seafighting for a trade have got to stand in together +once in a while. When I seen your friend knocked down I jumped in and +floored the big rough that hurt your messmate. We'd have brought your +friend along, but we didn't know just where to take him." + +It was hard for Hal to believe that clear-eyed, level-headed Eph Somers +would go into any of the low drinking resorts of the town; but he +thought it best not to ask any questions until he found young Somers. + +After some two minutes of brisk walking the two sailors turned down into +an alleyway. + +"The place we're going to is dark on the ground floor," stated one of +them. "Don't be afraid to go up a dark stairway, messmate. We'll be +with you, anyway." + +"I don't believe I'm afraid, thank you," smiled Hal. + +One of the sailors, stepping ahead, pushed door open, going in first. +Hal followed, the other sailor bringing up the rear. + +Then, like a flash, Hal Hastings felt him self seized on that dark +stairway, and a big hand held over his mouth. + +Like a tiger Hal fought for a few moments. As nearly as he could judge, +in the dark, he had four assailants. He was overborne, at last gagged +and tied. + +In the meantime Jack and Mr. Radwin had gone to the hotel dining room, +to find that the last diners had departed, leaving only a few waiters +who were arranging tables. + +"No one here," murmured Radwin "Then we'll look through the billiard +room, writing room and other places. Young Somers must be with the +party somewhere." + +Twenty minutes or more they spent in looking through the various public +parts of the big hotel. Then they returned to the lobby. Radwin was +limping, now, and looked uncomfortable. + +"What's the matter?" questioned Jack. + +"A nail in my shoe hurts me," lied the other, glibly, sinking into a +chair. "Benson, I reckon I'll sit here a few minutes. Then I'll get to +my room and call a bell-boy, to see if he can find some one to fix the +shoe." + +"Too bad," murmured Jack. "But say, I'll go back to the corner, and +tell Hal, so he won't be standing on the corner all night." + +With that Jack Benson walked briskly out. Up at the next corner, +however, instead of finding Hal, the young skipper was accosted by two +sailors in United States naval uniform. + +"I reckon your name's Benson, messmate?" hailed one of the pair. + +"I reckon it is," nodded Jack, looking sharply at them. + +"Got a bit of bad news for you, then," added the first speaker. "It +ain't so awful bad, though. One of your friends--Winter, I think his +name was--" + +"No; Somers," corrected the other sailor. + +"Well, he saw a row going on, and he had to run down the street and get +into it. Too many fellers in the fight, and Winter--" + +"Somers," interposed the second sailor. + +"Yes; that was it. Somers got pretty badly used up. His scalp was cut +some considerable. He was taken into a house nearby, and a doctor called +in to stitch him up. Somers sent us to find his messmates. We found +your friend, Hastings, and took him around there. Hastings wanted us to +find you, and bring you there, messmate." + +"Poor old Eph!" muttered Jack. "Tough luck, and at a bad time for us." + +"We'll take you 'round to where your messmates are," volunteered the +sailor. "Hastings was particular that you come at once." + +"I'll get a carriage to bring Mr. Somers home in," Jack suggested. + +"Oh, your messmate, Hastings, has sent a feller for a carriage," broke +in the first sailor, hastily. + +"Good enough," Jack nodded. "Then say, boys, I'll just run back to the +hotel. I left Radwin in there. I'll be right back with you. You'll +wait for me, surely, won't you?" + +"Oh, sure!" chorused both sailors. Then, as Jack Benson scurried down +the street, the two supposed sailors turned to each other, chuckling +softly. + +"Sure we'll waits" repeated one of the pair. + +It was several minutes ere Jack returned, coming up almost breathlessly. + +"Sorry to keep you waiting, boys," he spoke, hastily. "But I'm here at +last." + +"Oh, that's all right, messmate. Come along and we'll pilot you straight +to your friend, Winter--" + +"Somers," corrected the other sailor. + +Between the pair, some two minutes later, Jack Benson turned off a side +street into an alleyway. The houses down in this alley were dark. Most +of the little buildings here were occupied only in the daytime, as junk +shops and old rag stores. + +"Don't mind the dark," spoke one of the sailors, as he pushed open a +door. "There's light enough on the second floor. That's where you'll +find your friend, Winter." + +"Somers," remonstrated the second sailor. + +On the dark stairway Jack Benson found himself suddenly attacked, not +only by the sailor pair, but by at least two other men, as well. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BUT SOMETHING HAPPENED NEXT + + +"Oh, you--" Jack shot out, hoarsely, he felt himself borne under by +crushing weight. + +"Go easy, messmate, and you'll sleep more peaceful to-night!" chuckled +one of the sailors, holding a big hand over the submarine boy's mouth, +while another unseen assailant pinned Jack's hands at the wrists. + +Flare! A sudden glow of light illumined the dark hallway. Then more +light. + +"Jerusby!" howled one of the sailor pair, leaping to his feet. + +Instantly there was consternation among all the assailants. + +In the excitement, young Benson was forgotten. Freed from assault, he +leaped to his feet. + +The flare of light had come from two bull's-eye police lanterns, held in +the open doorway below. + +"There are the scoundrels, men! Grab them!" shouted a voice of +authority. + +The speaker and two other men were in police uniforms. Four other men +there were in ordinary civilian garb. + +In the excitement Jack Benson let his fist fly, knocking one of the +sailors headlong down the stairs. But the submarine boy did not pause +there. His other fist, landed on the second sailor, sending him after +the first. + +"Club their heads off, if any of 'em put up a fight," commanded the +police officer in charge. + +Two other men, not in sailors' uniform cowered on the stairs, close to +the young submarine captain. There was no fight, beyond the blows that +young Benson struck. Cowed by the unexpected appearance of the law's +force, the quartette of rascals surrendered. There was a clicking of +handcuffs. + +"Your chief thought I was crazy, or telling him fairy stories over the +telephone," laughed Captain Jack Benson. "Now, I guess--" + +"I am the Chief of police," retorted the officer in authority. "I +thought that, if anything such as you described were happening in Colfax, +then I'd better come along myself to investigate. But now, perhaps you +can explain more than you did over the 'phone from the Somerset House?" + +"I have the best of reasons," Jack replied, "for imagining that two of +my friends have disappeared by the same trick that was tried on me. If +that is so, I'm mighty anxious to find them as soon as possible." + +"Do any of you scoundrels know where this young gentleman's friends are?" +demanded the chief, turning to glare at his prisoners, lined up along +the wall in the lower hallway. "The man that talks quickly now may get +off easier than the rest, later on." + +"There's two boys bound and gagged in the sub-cellar of this place," +spoke one of the two prisoners not in uniform. + +"Good enough," nodded the chief of police, looking at the informant. +"Officer Davis, you come with me. You may come, too, Mr. Benson. The +rest of you wait where you are." + +The door to the cellar was locked, but the police chief, with a skeleton +key, soon had the lock forced. Passing down into the cellar, their way +lighted by one of the bull's-eye lanterns, they found a trap opening +upon a stairway down into the sub-cellar below. + +Here they came upon Hal and Eph, both securely bound and gagged, and +lying on piles of old rags. It was not long ere the two submarine boys +were free and on their feet, wholly overjoyed. + +"Great Scott! How did you ever find us here?" quivered Eph Somers. + +"I'll tell you when we get away from here," smiled Skipper Jack. + +Up the stairs they went. One of the police party, in the meantime, had +gone out to telephone for a covered police van. Into this the four +prisoners were hustled and locked securely in. + +Those of the police party who did not go with the van soon vanished, all, +save Chief Ward. + +"Now, Captain Benson," muttered the chief of police, "I want to +congratulate you on your clever wit and sound judgment. I also want to +thank you for enabling me to run down a gang like that. I fully +understand that in the morning, you have to be away on a very important +submarine test, and that it would be wholly inconvenient for you to have +to appear in court. So I won't expect you. On the testimony that my +men and I can give the judge will continue the case until such time as +you can appear. My men already understand that none of the prisoners are +to be allowed to communicate with outside friends to-night or to-morrow +morning. So you may be sure that no news of their arrest will leak out. +And now, good-night, boys. Congratulations, again, and thanks!" + +Nor were Jack Benson and his friends long in vanishing, either. They +did not go back at all by the way of the Somerset House. They went down +to the water-front by a different route. Yet they were fortunate enough +to find a shore boat that put them out on board the "Benson." + +"And now, Jack, old fellow," exploded Eph, as they sat in the snug +security of their little cabin, "don't you dare think of anything else +until you tell us how you brought a seeming miracle about." + +"Oh, that was easy," laughed Jack Benson, gleefully. "In the first +place, it was mighty queer, Eph, that we left you on that corner--and +you vanished. Then we left Hal on that same corner--and the earth +swallowed him up. Then two fake sailors stopped me at that very same +corner--" + +"How did you know they were fake sailors?" broke in Hal. "I never +suspected their genuineness." + +"Why, see here," glowed Jack, "a United States Man-of-warsman has +respect for an officer's uniform drilled into him twenty-four hours in +the day. We're not officers of the Navy, but we wear a uniform that is +very much like the uniform of a naval officer, all but the insignia +of rank. What is the consequence? Every sailor we meet sees the +uniform, and says 'sir' to us by sheer force of habit. Why, you both +know that a good many sailors who pass us give us the regular salute. +Yet these two fake sailors hailed me as 'messmate' and were as familiar +in every other way as they knew how to be." + +"Gracious! When they spoke to me, I never thought of that little point," +confessed Hal. + +"So I told the pretended sailors," continued Captain Jack, "that I'd run +down to the hotel, and that I'd be right back." + +"Did you tell anyone where you were going?" demanded Eph. + +"No one was there that I knew. Instead, I slipped into the telephone +room, at the side of the lobby, and called up the chief of police. +I happened to get the chief himself on the wire. He thought I was a +drunken sailor, or else that I was out of my head. But he finally +agreed to have some detectives on hand to see the sailors take me away +in tow." + +"Then--?" pursued Eph. + +"Why, then I waited long enough to give the detectives a chance to reach +the scene. Then I went back and walked into the trap with the fake +sailors." + +It was a story that was hugely enjoyed by the young submarine captain's +comrades. + +"But who would put up such a queer job on us?" demanded Hal. + +"It must be some one who didn't want us to man a Pollard boat in +to-morrow's speed test, of course," nodded Jack. "It seems like a mean +thing to say, and we ought to be sure, but I believe Rhinds and Radwin +are the offenders." + +The more the submarine boys talked it over, the more they were inclined +to fall in line with the guess that Rhinds and Radwin had been behind +their troubles. + +"Some one has got to suffer for this business, before we get through!" +cried Captain Jack, his eyes flashing ominously. "But come, now, +fellows, we must go to bed, for we must have enough sleep if we're to +be good and fit in to morrow's race." + +It was rather late, that evening when Messrs. Farnum and Pollard, still +with John C. Rhinds, returned to the Somerset House. + +"I don't see our youngsters about, anywhere," muttered Jacob Farnum. +"But their room keys are gone from the clerk's rack, so I guess they've +turned in, like sensible fellows." + +They did not know that Radwin himself had secretly removed the keys in +order to create the impression that the boys were in bed. + +Rhinds and Radwin talked in whispers, behind the locked door of another +room. They chuckled a long while, then shook hands and went to bed. + +The boys, however, as we know, were safely aboard the submarine. + +Mr. Farnum had left a call for eight o'clock in the morning. It was +about twenty minutes later that Farnum and Pollard knocked loudly on +the door of the room occupied by Rhinds. + +"Well?" demanded Mr. Rhinds, opening the door, and appearing, minus coat +and vest. "Ah, good morning, gentlemen. Going down to breakfast? I'll +be ready in a few moments." + +"Breakfast--nothing!" retorted Jacob Farnum, sharply. "Our young men +are missing. We went to their rooms this morning, and could get no +answer. We've had their doors opened with pass-keys--our three young +submarine officers haven't been in their beds all night long!" + +John C. Rhinds allowed his face to express more surprise than concern +over this news. + +"Oh, well," he remarked, "boys will be boys, you know--especially when +they're sailors." + +"Our boys are not that sort," retorted Mr. Farnum, sharply. "They are +not hoodlums or racketers." + +"Then of course you'll find 'em safe on one of your boats," proposed Mr. +Rhinds, innocently. "Just two minutes, and I'll go down to breakfast +with you." + +Radwin, too, joined them. He also expressed surprise, artfully. All +four went to the breakfast room together. Messrs. Farnum and Pollard +ate well enough, though they seemed badly worried. + +"There's just one thing about it, of course," sighed Jacob Farnum, as +the party left the table. "If our youngsters are not on one of our boats, +then we've got to lose the speed race to-day. None of us can handle the +boats the way they do." + +"Oh, you'll find the boys all right on one of the boats," asserted Fred +Radwin, confidently. + +The rivals went down to the water front together. It was well after +nine o'clock when they entered a shore boat. + +"We'll go out to your craft, first," proposed Mr. Rhinds, "You'll feel +so much better, gentlemen, when you find your crew all right. I'll feel +better, too, for I wouldn't want to beat you unfairly to-day." + +Grant Andrews and two of his workmen stood on the platform deck of the +"Benson," leaning against the conning tower, when the shore boat came +within hail. + +"I am afraid to call out to Grant, and ask him," faltered the +shipbuilder. + +"Then don't do it," returned Mr. Rhinds, sympathetically. "Just wait +until we get alongside, and you'll see your young men popping out of the +conning tower, rested and as bright as new buttons." + +A moment later the shore boat rounded in alongside. Then, quite +suddenly, the three submarine boys projected themselves through the +manhole, and stood in full view on the platform deck. + +"Eh? Hey?" gasped John C. Rhinds, utterly nonplussed. + +Fred Radwin's lower jaw seemed to drop several inches. He stared as +though he were seeing ghosts, while a sickly, greenish pallor crept into +his handsome face. + +"By Jove, you were right, Rhinds!" gasped Jacob Farnum, turning. "Thank +you, old man, for keeping our courage up." + +"Good morning, Mr. Farnum! Good Morning Mr. Pollard!" chorused the three +submarine boys. Then, favoring Rhinds and Radwin with brief glances: + +"Good morning--_gentlemen!_" + +"Gentlemen?" repeated Eph, disgustedly, under his breath. "I think not!" + +Though Rhinds and his agent speedily managed to look pleasant, they +hadn't gotten their spirits back when the shore boat pulled away. + +Farnum and Pollard went hurriedly below, where Jack and his comrades +followed. + +"Jack! Jack! Thank you a million times!" gasped Farnum, seizing the young +captain's hand, then giving the other boys the same hearty gripping +handshake. "Your note that we got, this morning, gave us the information +we needed and we knew just how to act." + +"And, from the way Rhinds and his fellow acted, when they caught sight +of you boys," added David Pollard, "we can form a pretty good idea of who +tried to shanghai you three last night." + +"The scoundrels!" glowered Farnum, in righteous rage. + +"Now, sir," cried Jack, laughing savagely, "why did those fellows try +such a trick on us? Because they hoped, thereby, to beat us in the +distance speed race to-day." + +"Of course," nodded the shipbuilder, still savage. "Rhinds builds fast +submarines. I know that, from the reports I've had. Plainly, the +Pollard boats are the only craft he feels much afraid of." + +"He'll be more than afraid, to-night," vaunted Jack Benson, proudly. +"More than afraid, sir. When the figures of to-day's distance speed +course are in John C. Rhinds will be frozen cold!" + +"If we have to turn on gasoline and run the engines so hot we blow the +whole deck off!" confirmed Hal Hastings, explosively. + +"If I should be inclined to forget to-day," growled Eph Somers, "I have +a pain in my head, from a crack I received last night, that will put me +in mind of the whole outrage, and keep me strictly on the job of +vengeance!" + +"I guess you youngsters have the winning fire all right, for to-day," +smiled Jacob Farnum, grimly. + +"Are you going to enter both boats in to-day's race?" asked Jack, more +thoughtfully. + +"We can't," replied the shipbuilder. "Captain Magowan told me, last +night, that, since the Rhinds people and ourselves are the only makers +who have more than one boat here, today's race will be confined to one +craft representative of each make. So, which boat do you prefer to take +out to-day, Jack?" + +"It doesn't make a bit of difference which one," returned young Captain +Benson. "Between the 'Hastings' and the 'Benson' there isn't a hair's +breadth to choose. But with either boat, sir, I believe that, to-day, we +can run any Rhinds boat off the surface of the ocean!" + +It was all very good to have such confidence in their boat. Yet was it +to be justified? + +* * * * * * * * * * + +Almost immediately came the first blow. A telegram came on board, +addressed to Williamson. The latter's brother was seriously ill at home, +and the machinist had to leave at once, going north by the next train. +As it happened, the brother speedily recovered, but this incident for +the time left the Farnum forces the losers of a highly useful man in the +engine room. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +JOHN C. RHINDS ADVOCATES FAIR SPORT! + + +Boom! From over the port rail of the "Oakland" a dense cloud of grayish +white smoke belched out. + +Through it flashed a streak of red. + +As the "Oakland" was the temporary flagship of this fleet of two +gunboats, this gunfire was the signal for the submarines to move on out +of the bay. + +Lieutenant Danvers had already come over to the "Benson" from the +flagship. Danvers bore with him the orders of the naval board. +Moreover, the lieutenant was to remain on the Pollard craft that day. +Each submarine that was entered for the race had a naval officer on +board, who was to give directions, at need, and to act as judge of +conduct. + +"Just get under way easily, and move out, Mr. Benson," advised Danvers. +"Eight or nine miles will be fast enough to go." + +Jack and the naval officer stood by the platform deck steering wheel as +the "Benson" left her moorings. + +Back by the conning tower stood Messrs. Farnum and Pollard. Eph was +below, until otherwise needed, to render Hal any necessary help in the +engine room. + +"There goes the Rhinds boats" called Mr Farnum, as one of the other +submarines left her moorings, making for sea in the wake of the +"Chelsea," which gunboat was to act as the starter's boat for that day. + +"What's the name of that particular Rhinds boat?" asked Jack. + +"The 'Zelda'," replied Lieutenant Danvers. + +"Nice, lady-like name for a fighting boat," mocked Jack. + +"You don't seem to like the Rhinds people," hinted the naval officer. + +"I don't," Jack admitted, bluntly. + +"Well, I suppose it isn't human nature to be fond of our rivals," +assented the naval officer, slowly. + +"I've other reasons, of my own, for disliking Rhinds," muttered the +submarine boy. + +"He hasn't what you could call a wholesome face," smiled Danvers. "In +fact, I think Mr. Rhinds must be a self-made man, made very badly. I +can't quite think that he has anything of the human face divine." + +Jack laughed, but bitterly. + +"The 'Zelda' is the boat we have to beat today," he added. + +"I wonder if you'll do it?" muttered Lieutenant Danvers, gazing suddenly +over at the "Zelda," now well ahead and cutting a white path of foam. +"Great guns, look at her go!" + +Jack did glance up and ahead. He felt a sinking at heart, for the +moment. For the "Zelda" was showing a burst of speed that was calculated +to make any rival thoughtful. + +"Mr. Farnum," Jack called back, "will you pass the word for Hal to come +on deck?" + +Young Hastings was up in a moment! + +"They're forcing that boat," muttered Hal, gazing after the "Zelda" +uneasily. "I can overtake her, though, Jack, if you say the word." + +"Do you think so?" asked Lieutenant Danvers, dubiously. + +"Don't try it, Hal," Jack advised, quietly. "Save all overheated pistons +and other parts for the final test." + +The "Zelda" was now well ahead of the "Chelsea," which was putting out +at cruising speed only. + +Too-oot! toot! toot! sounded sharply, hoarsely, from the deep throat +of the "Chelsea's" whistle. + +"Good enough," muttered Lieutenant Danvers. "They've ordered the Rhinds +scooter to slow clown and fall into line behind the gunboat." + +"I'm sorry," muttered Hal. + +"Why?" asked the naval lieutenant. + +"I wish they had let old Rhinds go ahead and get all his machinery +red-hot at the outset." + +Then, slowly shaking his head, Hal Hastings went back to his post. + +"Do you really think we can beat that scooter to-day, Hal?" inquired +the shipbuilder, anxiously. + +"Yes, sir." + +"What makes you so certain, lad?" + +"Why, we'll beat her just because we've got to do it, sir," Hastings +replied, then hurried below. + +"Hal isn't any too sure," muttered David Pollard, restlessly. "Neither +am I. Jake, we have a strong fight to make to-day. Somehow, Rhinds has +managed to put a pretty lively engine in that boat of his. I had an +idea she'd be two or three miles an hour slower." + +"Probably we haven't been shown anything like the 'Zelda's' best speed, +yet," replied Farnum, moodily. + +Building and trying out submarine torpedo boats is the kind of work to +make many a man's hair turn prematurely white. As success depends +solely upon actual showings made, the anxiety of any builder during a +series of competitive tests in which several makes of boat are entered +can be easily understood. + +Messrs. Farnum and Pollard were plainly on tenterhooks that day. They +might well be. Should the Rhinds boat carry away the honors on that +day and on the subsequent days of the present tests, then Farnum and +Pollard, who had their entire fortunes invested in this business, would +have on their hands only so much scrap steel, brass and iron. + +Nor would Jack and his comrades fare any better. If the boys were +vanquished, Farnum and Pollard would have no more work for them. No +other submarine company would want the services of losers. + +"Keep your nerve to-day, won't you, Benson?" asked Lieutenant Danvers, +in a low tone. + +"Why?" queried Jack, with the ghost of a smile, as he glanced into the +naval officer's face. "Have I been showing any nervousness?" + +"Not yet, and I don't want you to." + +"Are you as interested as that in us, Mr. Danvers?" + +"I like you, Benson--like you from the deck up, and I don't want to +see you lose a single point in the game. That's all." + +Eph Somers came on deck, presently. + +"Hal says he doesn't need me below for the present, Jack, so I came up +to relieve you at the wheel. I don't want to see your steering wrist +going stale when the race starts, so you'd better let me have the wheel, +while you keep yourself fresh for the real work." + +"As the race hasn't begun yet," broke in Lieutenant Danvers, "there is +no impropriety in my taking the wheel out to the start, if you'll trust +me to handle your boat." + +"Trust a naval officer?" laughed Jack Benson, flashing a smile of +gratitude at the lieutenant. "That's a funny idea to suggest." + +Danvers took the wheel silently, then devoted his whole thought, +apparently, to the--for him--simple task that he had in hand. + +Outside the bay the "Chelsea" signaled to the submarine boats to slow up. +Then the gunboat moved over to temporary anchorage. A line between the +gunboat's bow and the lighthouse on Groton Point, to the northward, was +to furnish the imaginary starting line. This line the five competing +submarine torpedo boats must, at second gunfire, cross as nearly together +as possible. There were penalties, of course, for any one boat trying +to steal a lead over the rest. + +By this time the fast gunboat "Oakland," which had a safe speed of +twenty-four knots an hour, under forced draught, lay to, some two miles +further out. The "Oakland's" task was to stick close to the leaders, +and, at the end, to decide which craft had won. + +_Boom!_ The first gun sounded over the starboard side of the "Chelsea." +In five minutes' time the second gun would thunder out--and the racers +would be off! + +Such a scurrying as there was then among these five little craft of war! + +Captain Jack Benson had the wheel again. Henceforth, Lieutenant Danvers +was to be but a spectator--a judge, at need, and on his honor, as an +officer of the United States Navy, to show no partiality to those on +whose boat he found himself. + +As Eph might be needed on deck, at any instant, he stood leaning against +the conning tower. + +David Pollard was missing. He had gone below, had taken off his coat, +and was standing in shirt-sleeves, ready to render any possible aid to +Hal Hastings, the young chief engineer on whom so much depended in the +six hours to come. + +Now that one of the supreme moments in his career had come, Jacob Farnum +hardly dared breathe. He said not a word to Eph, who, just as anxious, +stood at his elbow. + +As the submarine craft scurried over the waves, each seeking its best +place for a start over the line, the "Zelda" came up within sixty yards, +running alongside for a moment or two. + +John C. Rhinds, standing at the rail of his own craft, with what was +intended to be a smile his face, waved his hat wildly at Jacob Farnum. + +"Good luck to you, Farnum--and to us!" bellowed Rhinds. "Of course, +I'd like to win today, but if you've the better boat, go ahead and +leave us at the finish. May the best craft win, no hard feelings! +Fair sport all the way through, Farnum, old and to you, Benson--may +you never be in fitter shape than to-day!" + +"The old hypocrite!" gasped Jack, vengefully "I'm mighty sorry I can't +head this boat around and run it straight down his lying throat!" + +"Then he'd surely gobble you up!" laughed Lieutenant Danvers. "But be +careful, lad! Don't let vengeful thoughts get into your head and stick +to-day. You've got to keep yourself cool and your nerve steady. Look +out, now, for the second gun!" + +All five of the submarines were manoeuvering for the starting line. + +Boom! The second gun roared out, and the six hours' speed and endurance +test was on! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE STRAIN OF RED-HOT METAL + + +First over the line passed the "Zelda," but it was a fair get-away. How +her propellers churned the foam now! + +Just as it happened, and through no fault of handling, Jack Benson got +the Pollard craft over the line third. At the outset, therefore, his +boat was distanced some twenty-four seconds by the leader. + +"Steady, now!" called Jacob Farnum, in low tones. "We've six hours in +which to make up a few seconds." + +If Captain Jack heard, he gave no sign. + +For the next few minutes the youthful commander seemed to forget +everything but the wheel under his hand, and the course and speed of the +craft he commanded. + +That the "Benson" was slowly losing was not, at first, clear to anyone +on board. It took time to draw out the increasing lead of the other +craft, but, after a while, it became more and more evident. + +True, the "Benson" was second in the line--but the "Zelda" was first. + +At the end of an hour there were drops of clammy ooze on Captain Jack's +forehead. He was steering as well as he had ever steered in his life. +Hal had sent up word that the "Benson's" engines were doing all that +could fairly be required of them. + +That troublesome hour up, Captain Jack called to Eph to take the helm. + +A few moments later the youthful commander appeared again on the platform +deck, carrying a range-finder on a tripod. Through the telescope he took +some rapid sights, then did some quick figuring. When he looked up +Benson saw Jacob Farnum standing within four feet of him. The +shipbuilder's face looked gray and haggard. + +"How much?" asked Jacob Farnum. + +"Shade more than a quarter of a mile in the lead of us, sir," Jack +replied. + +"Have you been down to talk to Hal?" + +"What's the use, sir?" demanded Jack. "Hal Hastings knows how much +depends on speed. He's doing everything that his engineer's conscience +will allow. Besides, David Pollard is there with him, sir." + +"I've no orders to give," Jacob Farnum sighed, stepping back. "You +youngsters know what you're about, and how much depends upon our success +to-day." + +Indeed, Jack Benson knew! As he silently took his place at the wheel +again deep lines appeared in his youthful face. He knew, this forenoon, +what it meant to suffer. + +At the end of the second hour, Jack again called Eph to take a short +relief trick at the wheel. But Jack, instead of resting, promptly +placed the range-finder. As he tried to adjust the telescope the +submarine boy's hands shook. Jack glanced over at Lieutenant Danvers, +cool and impassive. Danvers knew all about working that range-finder. +But the naval officer was aboard as an official spectator. If the +lieutenant aided in any way, then the Pollard submarine would be +disqualified. + +Jack's work was more slow, this time. It was some moments before he had +the new range figured out. + +"How far astern of the 'Zelda' are we now?" called Jacob Farnum. + +"A shade over a half a mile." + +"Whew! And the race only a third run." + +"In other words," went on the young captain, "the Rhinds boat is gaining +steadily on us at the rate of a quarter of a mile an hour. Not much, +yet enough to win the race beyond any dispute." + +"Can't we catch up over that distance?" asked Jacob Farnum. + +"Not now, anyway, sir." + +Jack went back beside the wheel. Somehow, he did not feel like taking +the spokes into his own hands. Instead, he wheeled, silently, going +back, through the conning tower, and down to the engine room. + +"How do we stand with the Rhinds craft?" asked David Pollard, who sat +on one of the cushioned seats in the engine room. + +"Half a mile behind, sir." + +Pollard got up slowly, then went through and up the stairs to the deck. + +For some moments Hal and Jack talked together, in low tones. Both +looked rather glum, until Hal suggested something that sent a little +ray of hope into Benson's eyes. + +"We'll see," muttered the young captain. "It looks like a forlorn hope, +though, Hal." + +At the end of the third hour the "Zelda" had added another quarter mile +to the lead, while the "Oakland" showing the way, was a good mile ahead +of the foremost racer. + +When four hours had gone by the Rhinds boat was discovered to be just +about a mile ahead of her nearest competitor. The Seawold boat, third +in line, was half a mile behind the "Benson," and the Blackson boat, last +of all, was two miles behind the Pollard boat's stern. But Jack and +his friends had long ago ceased to feel any interest in the tail-enders. + +The race was to be over at five o'clock. At half-past three, or four +hours and a half after the start, Jack found, by the help of the +rangefinder, that the Rhinds boat led by a mile and an eighth. + +"Keep the wheel, Eph!" called the Young commander. "Steer as straight +as you can. I'll be up soon." + +Then Jack Benson darted below, though his legs trembled a bit under him. + +"All ready, Hal!" shouted the youthful commander. "Play our one trump +card, and play it as hard as you can! Though I'm afraid Rhinds has just +such a card in his own pack." + +Then up to the platform deck hastened Jack Benson. He moved quietly to +the wheel, taking it from Eph. The young captain did not propose to +leave again until the race was over. + +Soon after this something happened that must have made those aboard the +Rhinds boat feel uneasy. The "Benson" began to crawl up on the "Zelda." + +"What are you doing now, Jack?" called Jacob Farnum sharply, as he and +Pollard moved forward to stand by the young captain. + +"I'll tell you, in a few minutes, if our move seems to be any good, sir," +Jack answered. + +By four o'clock half the space between the Rhinds boat and the Pollard +craft had been covered. By this time two men were observed aft on the +"Zelda," their gaze turned steadily on the "Benson." + +"Take the wheel for two or three minutes, Eph," begged the young captain, +on whom the strain was beginning to tell. + +Then, turning to his employers, Jack went on: + +"The way Hal and I figured it out, sir, the 'Benson' is really the +faster boat. But the Rhinds people may have been overheating their +engines--slightly, systematically, and using a lot of water to cool +the metal. Now, if that is the case, they may be doing their best at +forced speed. Hal and I determined, if we didn't lose more than a +quarter of a mile an hour, we'd rather let the 'Zelda' keep the lead, +and go on slowly overheating her engines. But now, in the last hour and +a half of the race, Hal is up to the same trick. If that has been the +case with the 'Zelda,' and they now, at this late hour, go to any +greater lengths in overheating, they're likely to blow the engines out +of their hull. But we can stand the present speed, with its gradual +overheating, up to the finish time for the race. If both boats keep +going at the speed they're using now, and neither has an accident, we +stand to come in half a mile in the lead." + +"Good strategy, that, Jack!" cried Jacob Farnum, his eyes gleaming. "To +let the other fellow take the risk of overheating his machinery all day, +while we do it only in the last part of the race. My boy, I'm hopeful +we may win yet." + +"So am I, sir," muttered Benson. "Still, there's the risk that John C. +Rhinds may have something more up his sleeve. We'll know before long, +anyway." + +By twenty minutes past four the "Benson" was almost close enough to the +other submarine to throw a biscuit across the intervening space, had +any on board the Pollard craft been inclined that way. + +John C. Rhinds stood by the starboard rail of his own craft, regarding +the rival with anxious eyes. But Jack knew the rascal to be so wily +that the look of anxiety might be feigned. + +Up, nearer and nearer! Jack was moving to the starboard of the "Zelda," +as the "Oakland" was on that same side of the course. + +"The old wretch isn't shouting out anything about fair play and good +luck to us, now," muttered Jack, vengefully, as, at half-past four, the +two craft ran neck and neck, but little over a hundred yards apart. + +Then the "Benson" began to forge ahead. The "Zelda" still hung on, but +she was plainly in second place. + +David Pollard hurried below, to see what he could do to help Hal Hastings +in this supreme crisis. + +"We're leaving her right behind," rang Jack Benson's voice, exultantly. +"The 'Zelda's' old speed was her best, even at overheating. If nothing +happens, now, we'll go in first!" + +Interest, now, led those on the "Benson's" deck aft. Eph, being at the +wheel, could be trusted not to look around, but to keep his eyes straight +on the gunboat mark ahead. + +John C. Rhinds could be seen, hanging limply over the rail of the +"Zelda," his straining vision turned ahead. But he was being left more +and more to the rear. + +Boom! The sound came suddenly over the water, at last. All hands aft +on the "Benson" ran forward, to find the "Oakland" swinging around so +that her bow pointed the path for the leading submarine. + +Eph remained at the wheel, steering steadily. He carried the "Benson" +past the gunboat's bow, some seventy yards away. A cheer went up from +the sailors crowding forward on the gunboat's spar deck. The cheer +would have sounded, no matter which submarine had won. + +Then Eph cut a wide circle, coming back close to the gunboat. + +"You win!" shouted an officer at the "Oakland's" rail. + +"Of course," nodded Lieutenant Danvers, "But what distance?" + +"The board allows you half a mile and a furlong." + +Captain Jack Benson, now that the strain was over, felt as though the +platform deck were sinking under him. + +"Let me have that wheel," commanded Jacob Farnum, stepping forward. +"Jack, you and Eph, below with you! Coffee, steak--and anything +else--for all three of you youngsters!" + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LET A SAILOR STICK TO HIS DECK + + +It was after midnight when the "Benson," first in, went to her moorings. +Grant Andrews and two of his men came on board, to stand guard over the +little sea-terror. + +It was after one in the morning when the Seawold craft strayed into port. +A little later came the "Chelsea" and the remaining submarine rivals, +for the gunboat had stood by the slower ones in case aid of any sort was +needed. + +As the "Zelda" came to her moorings in the inky blackness John C. Rhinds +stepped out upon her platform deck. Rhinds, after his disappointment, +looked like a very old man. He paced back and forth, moodily, until his +captain and crew had gone below. Then Rhinds turned, with a half snarl, +when Fred Radwin, after lighting a cigar, stepped outside. + +"Feeling glum?" asked Radwin, stupidly, as he gazed at his chief. + +"A fool question that!" snapped the older man. + +"It is, rather," admitted the younger man. + +"Radwin, you're an idiot!" + +"Thank you!" + +"You told me you had those three Pollard boys taken care of--'canned' +was the word you used. Yet, the first thing we saw, when we me out on +the harbor, was those same boys, looking their finest. And they went +into today's affair and beat us. We've lost the speed and endurance +test." + +"Those boys were trapped, all right," protested Radwin, in a low tone. +"I can't begin to imagine how they ever got loose again." + +"They got loose because you're a fool!" raged the older man. + +"I'm good-natured, Mr. Rhinds" cried Radwin, an ugly gleam coming into +his eyes, "but I don't stand everything. You'll need me yet so you'll +do well to keep a civil tongue behind your teeth!" + +"Stop that! Don't try any mighty airs on me!" quivered Rhinds. + +"Oh, blow off your steam, quietly, and then become reasonable," yawned +Fred Radwin. "First thing you know, you'll really make an enemy of me, +and then the trick will be done, Rhinds. For you need me. Just now, +you need me worse than you ever did in your life before." + +"Need you?" sneered the other. "What for?" + +"Well, for one thing, there are other tests ahead of the submarine +boats." + +"Can you win any of those tests?" jeered Rhinds, harshly. + +"No; but I can do what will, perhaps, be the next best thing. I can +stop the boys aboard the Pollard craft from being on hand to put their +boat through all its paces. All you need is to have the Pollard end +blocked. You can more than hold your end against the other submarines." + +"Well, what can you do to stop the boys on the Pollard boats?" demanded +Rhinds, unbelievingly. + +"I can stop them from being on hand at the next tests. Or else I can +attend to them so that they'll be of very little use, anyway." + +"Bah! You're dreaming, Fred! The boys were too smart for you last time; +Now that they're on their guard, don't you realize they'd be harder +than ever to catch." + +"Jack Benson and his friends don't know that I was behind what happened +last night," retorted Radwin. "Besides, if they're on their guard, now, +so am I. I know them to be smarter than I first thought, so I shall +spread a deeper, tighter net for them. John Rhinds, you shall win the +rest of the submarine tests. At least, the Pollard boats won't win!" + +Radwin talked so confidently that John Rhinds began to look at him more +hopefully. + +"What are you going to do, Fred?" the wretch inquired, at last. + +"I'm going on shore--now." + +"Everybody will know, if you call a boat at this hour of the night." + +"Bosh! You and I are both going on shore--back to the Somerset House. +Anything very strange about that?" demanded Radwin. "We're tired out +from the day's cruise, and want to be off the water. So we're going to +the Somerset. We'll drift in, get something to eat, and then start +upstairs. You can hardly go to sleep, Rhinds, but I shall start out +again, on the sly, and go to find some handy people I know in the little +city of Colfax. So that's settled, and I'll signal for the boat now." + +Jack and his comrades slept on the "Benson" that night. For one thing, +they felt so tired, after the day's long strain, that they really +lacked the desire even to go to larger, softer beds on shore. So they +awoke in the morning feeling as fresh as sea-larks should. + +"There are no tests on for to-day, and nothing to be done on board, +except to clean the engines," spoke Jacob Farnum over the breakfast +table in the little cabin. "So, youngsters, we'll go ashore and refresh +ourselves. Grant's men will clean the engines. That's what they're +really here for." + +"Don't you think it would be wiser, sir, to remain on board?" smiled +Captain Jack. "As you will remember, we found the shore rather too +lively the last time we were there." + +"Things happened because you boys got out of our sight," chuckled the +shipbuilder, quietly. "That's the point. What you youngsters need is +a brace of guardians. So, while you're to go on shore, Dave and I will +go along, and you're not to get out of our sight. Remember that." + +"We'll be safe, then," nodded Eph, sagely. "I surely do want to stretch +my legs, and take a yawn or two where a sea-gull won't flap down my +throat." + +Of course, the idea of going on shore really appealed to all hands. So, +half an hour later, a shore boat put off with them all, leaving Grant +and his men still in charge. + +"I wonder what the next test is going to be?" asked Jack. + +"I shall have to refer you to the members of the naval board, and they +won't tell until this evening," replied Mr. Farnum. "That's one of +their rules--no news until the evening before. That prevents too much +time being spent in preparation. One of the objects of these tests is +to find out how well the different types of submarines can do things on +short notice." + +"That's right," nodded Captain Jack, thoughtfully. "Really, when you +come to think of it, submarine torpedo boats are short notice craft +anyway." + +"And, best of all, with no notice whatever to the enemy," broke in Eph. +"In future wars it's going to give a good deal of comfort to a fellow +to think that he serves on a submarine, instead of on a battleship." + +"Where are you going to stop on shore, Jake?" inquired Pollard. + +"At the Somerset," responded Mr. Farnum. + +"Then we're likely to run into that Rhinds-Radwin crowd." + +"We can stand it, if they can," replied Farnum, compressing his lips +grimly. "Our consciences are cleaner than theirs." + +Indeed, in passing from the lobby to the breakfast room, where the +Pollard party intended to take coffee, Messrs. Rhinds and Radwin were +encountered just as they were coming out. + +"Ah, good morning, gentlemen," hailed John C. Rhinds, halting and holding +out his hand. Fred Radwin, too, beamed cordially upon the enemy. + +"'Morning," replied Jacob Farnum, ignoring the outstretched hand of +Rhinds. Radwin's ready-made smile, too, was overlooked, as the Pollard +submarine party filed by into the breakfast room. + +"I don't believe they'll waste any make-believe cordiality on us, after +that," grimaced Mr. Pollard, as he dropped into a chair at a table. + +Fifteen minutes later a stout, rather short, middle-aged man entered the +breakfast room in haste. He spoke to the head waiter, who pointed out +the table at which the submarine party sat. + +Then the head waiter came over with a card and a letter which he handed +to Farnum. + +"'Mr. Walter C. Hodges,'" read Farnum, from the card. Then, glancing at +the envelope "'Introducing Mr. Hodges.' It's from Judson, proprietor +of the hotel where I stop when in Washington," continued the shipbuilder, +as he glanced through the letter. "He asks me to extend any possible +courtesies to Mr. and Miss Hodges, for whom he vouches cordially." + +Rising, Mr. Farnum stepped over to meet Mr. Hodges, shaking hands with +the stranger. Then the pair walked back to the table. Farnum quickly +presented Mr. Hodges to the others. + +"Judson asks me to extend to you any possible courtesies," pursued the +shipbuilder. "I shall be very glad. Now, what can I do that will be +most agreeable to you?" + +"Why--er--er--" began Mr. Hodges, hesitatingly, "the thing that my +daughter and I are most interested in is your line of boats. In fact, +we came over to Colfax to see what we could of the boats and the tests. +Now, my daughter and I would both like very much to go aboard one of +your boats. Yet, if this would be at all irregular, or cause you any +inconvenience, I beg you to refuse us, and we shall understand your +refusal." + +None the less, the shipbuilder did feel and look embarrassed. + +"I wish it were anything else on earth," Farnum replied, frankly. "For, +though it gives me more pain than you can understand, my dear Mr. Hodges, +it will be absolutely impossible for us to admit anyone to the submarine +boats during the present tests." + +"Then say no more about it," replied Mr. Hodges, pleasantly. "I can +quite understand your position." + +"There is just a bare chance, though," mused the shipbuilder, "that I +might manage to obtain an invitation for your daughter and yourself to +go out on one of the gunboats, and watch the submarine craft at their +work." + +"Fine!" cried Hodges, with enthusiasm. "Yet, if it will inconvenience +you in the least, Mr. Farnum, I beg you to give no further thought to +it. Will you all, as soon as you are finished, come to the ladies' +parlor with me? My daughter will be most delighted at meeting real +submarine people." + +"We are finished, now," replied Mr. Farnum, laying down his cigar, "and +it will give us great pleasure to have the privilege of meeting Miss +Hodges." + +Though Hodges himself appeared a very common type of business man, and +was plainly dressed, Miss Elinor Hodges proved to be a beautiful girl of +about nineteen, and attired in the height of fashion. + +She was, however, most charming and gracious, and evidently greatly +interested in everything that had to do with submarine boats. + +An hour's very pleasant chat followed in the ladies' parlor. Then +Hodges, seeing an automobile pass one of the windows and halt before +the ladies' entrance of the hotel, suddenly drew out his watch. + +"Elinor, my dear, do you see the time?" demanded her father, holding out +his watch. Then, as the submarine party rose, prepared to take their +leave, Hodges turned to Farnum, explaining rapidly: + +"Yes; unfortunately, we have an appointment, and must defer the further +pleasure of seeing you until this evening. But that auto car outside, +which I did not order for this hour, and, in fact, cannot use for to-day, +gives me an idea. It is a car that I have hired for a week. Now, +Elinor and I are not going to use the car. Mr. Farnum, can't you and +your friends make use of the car to-day?" + +Jacob Farnum would have tried to decline, pleasantly, fearing the +acceptance of the use of the automobile might seem to bind him to +extend courtesies on one of his boats. But Mr. Hodges was so gently, +firmly insistent that, in a very short time, the submarine party found +themselves seated in the car. + +There was an abundance of room, for it was a seven-passenger car, large +and roomy. + +"This car is a whizzer, I understand," smiled Mr. Hodges, from the +sidewalk. + +"It certainly is, sir," agreed the chauffeur. + +"Well, chauffeur, take my friends wherever they want to go to-day, and +do whatever they want. Above all, when you get out on a country road, +show 'em some of your high speed." + +"Yes, sir." + +Honk! honk! The car rolled away, going slowly enough through the city +streets. Jacob Farnum, who sat in front with the driver, lighted a +cigar and settled back to enjoy himself. + +"Any particular place you want to go, sir?" asked the chauffeur. + +"No," replied the shipbuilder. "You know the way around this part of +the world better than we do. Take us out into the surrounding country, +and show us anything you consider of interest." + +"Yes, sir." + +After a few minutes the car had left Colfax behind. They were out on the +beginning of a country road, now. The chauffeur let out a few notches +of speed. + +"Smooth-running car," commented Mr. Farnum. + +"Runs just as smoothly, sir, at sixty miles an hour," replied the man. + +"When we get a little further out, you can us some of that," smiled +Mr. Farnum, contentedly. + +"I will, sir." + +"You boys afraid to go at sixty miles an hour?" asked the shipbuilder, +turning to face those in the tonneau. + +"Scared to death," laughed Jack Benson, gleefully. + +As soon as the chauffeur considered that he had reached a +little-enough-traveled part of the country road he let out the speed. + +"My, but we're going some," called Farnum. + +"Fifty miles," replied the chauffeur. "Now, I'll show you sixty." + +The car seemed to leap forward. Then, it seemed to those in the tonneau +as though they were beating any speed ever reached by an express train. + +Whizz-zz! It was wild, exhilarating--dangerous! + +"Say!" gasped Farnum. "If--" + +That was as far as he got. The forward end of his side of the car sank +to the ground. The car seemed trying to stand on its head. + +Then it stopped, and all in it were hurled into the center of awful +disaster. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE TRICK IS EASILY SEEN THROUGH + + +In the next instant all had settled. + +There had been a brief moment in which the air around the wrecked auto +had seemed full of flying human beings. + +Now, they lay by the road side in varying degrees of disaster. + +The left front axle had broken, the wheel rolling some yards ere it +stopped. + +Jacob Farnum, seated right over the axle, was hurled out, head first as +nearly as he could afterwards guess. How he avoided landing on his head +and sustaining a broken neck or shattered skull was one of those +miraculous things that no one can explain. + +The chauffeur had plunged out over Farnum's head, alighting beyond the +shipbuilder. The chauffeur now lay writhing and groaning. + +David Pollard landed first, on one wrist and his chest, a cry of anguish +escaping him. + +Eph Somers lay in the road motionless. Jack and Hal fell against the +padded side of the car. Hal remained there during the next second, but +young Benson turned a half-somersault, lightly, landing in the road just +outside. + +It was young Captain Jack who first got to his feet. Dazed for a few +moments, he rose slowly seeking for signs of injury. + +"I--I believe I'm not hurt," he congratulated himself. "Thank heaven +for that, for there are others here who seem in need of the promptest +help." + +First of all Jack turned to his chum, young Hastings. But Hal, though +his face was white from the shock of it all, smiled back, then helped +himself out of the wrecked car. + +Within the next few minutes it developed that Eph had been stunned. +Beyond this he had suffered no injury except a bruise along the left +thigh. + +Jacob Farnum proved to be only stunned and badly shaken. But David +Pollard displayed a helpless left wrist and complained of severe pain +in the left side of his chest. + +The chauffeur had a broken left leg, a broken arm, and a mass of bruises +on his face, where he had struck the hard earth. + +"Great Scott, but this is almost like the carnage of war!" muttered Jack +Benson. "Hal, you and Eph help Mr. Farnum with the others. I'm going +down the road to the first house, and send for aid." + +Arrived at a farm-house that proved to be connected with the telephone +service, Jack 'phoned for the two nearest doctors, and for men to come +and help the injured. Then he called up the garage from which the auto +had been hired; this address being supplied by the chauffeur. + +Then, accompanied by the man of the house, young Benson hurried back to +the scene of the wreck. The submarine captain found that he had at +least been so bruised and shaken up that speed on his feet hurt. + +The first to arrive, of those summoned, was the owner of the garage in +Colfax. He came in a large car, burning gasoline fast. + +"I'm Graves, from the garage," he introduced himself, shutting off power +and leaping out. "Jove, what a smash this is!" + +Until two doctors and several men arrived Graves devoted himself to +helping make the injured victims as comfortable as possible. + +When the doctors and helpers appeared on the scene Graves soon called +Jack Benson aside. + +"There's something about this affair that must be investigated," declared +the garage man, in an undertone. "The cars that I keep are all of one +make, and there are no stauncher, safer cars made in the world. No such +accident has ever before happened to one of my cars. Come; let's see +what we can find out." + +Graves didn't have to look far. He halted at the broken axle, staring +at it hard. Then he looked over the broken casting from all sides. + +"See here," Graves ground out, between his teeth, "all the axles on my +cars are branded with the trade-mark of the maker, and the number of the +inspector who passes the axles. Yet this axle is unbranded! Now, I +happen to know that the left forward axle on this car--last +night--was branded as usual, for I had the wheel off and looked it over. +That I can swear to." + +"Then another axle has been substituted?" demanded Jack, his eyes +flashing. + +"Yes, sirree." + +"How long, after you saw the right axle in place here, was it before the +car was taken from your garage?" + +"According to the office books this car was taken from the garage at +three o'clock this morning," replied Graves. + +"By one of your own men?" + +"No, sir! By a stranger who rented the car for a week, paid the rental +price, and gave his name as Hodges. He seemed to understand all about +running a car. He brought it back at six this morning." + +"Was that time enough in which to substitute a defective axle?" Jack +asked. + +"Oh, yes; a man expert at such work could do it in considerably less +time." + +"Such a defective axle might run along smoothly, quite a while at low +speed?" Benson persisted. + +"Yes." + +"But at high speed--?" + +"Look at this axle!" continued the garage man, excitedly. "You know +something about steel, don't you, young man?" + +"Enough to run machinery." + +"You see what a flawed piece of steel this is--unsuited to any strain? +I don't believe this axle could stand the strain of high speed in a big +auto for the distance of a mile." + +"That's about all it stood with us," muttered Jack Benson, his face +white, his jaws firmly set. + +"There's been some nasty work here," continued the garage man. "It +wasn't done by my chauffeur, either. He's probably the worst hurt of any +in your party, which assures his innocence of a hand in the despicable +work." + +"Oh, I don't suspect your man--not for an instant," Jack assured the +garage owner. "The truth is, I think I can guess just where to place +the blame." + +"Hodges turned this car over to you for a pleasure jaunt, didn't he?" +demanded the garage owner. + +"Yes." + +"And it was the same fellow who took this car out before daylight. It +wasn't used again until it was sent around for your party. Mr. Benson, +I think we can both guess whom to suspect in this desperately wicked +piece of business. If I can find that rascal, Hodges, I'll certainly +lay violent hands on him!" + +"Don't!" advised Jack, quietly. "In the first place, Mr. Graves, if you +took the law into your own hands, you'd only get yourself into trouble. +In the second place"--Jack Benson lowered his voice still more--"I +know, as well as I know I'm living, that Hodges was only the agent of +some one else. Mr. Graves, do me a great favor--a great favor to all +our party. For the present, if you must say anything, say just as +little as possible about the accident. Let it go at that. Don't throw +out any suspicions against Hodges. Don't let anyone know that I have +any suspicions. Just keep the whole thing quiet--and in that way +we'll get the authors of this outrage." + +"Are you sure?" demanded Graves, his look still darkly vengeful. + +"You might talk to just one person--when there's no one else around to +overhear you," Jack agreed. "That man is the chief of police in +Colfax. In view of some other things that he knows the chief will agree +with my view, and will thank you for keeping quiet and looking puzzled +over this affair." + +"All right," grumbled Mr. Graves. "I'll do as you ask, Mr. +Benson--until I've talked with the chief of police, anyway." + +By this time the badly-injured members of the party had received first +attention from the doctors, and were now being lifted into a big farm +wagon that had been brought to the scene. In this vehicle they were +taken to the nearest house, where they were placed on beds for better +attention. + +"I'm going back to the city, now," announced the garage man to the young +submarine captain. "I'm going to the chief of police, and I'll also see +to it that a big auto ambulance is sent out to take your friends and my +man to the hospital in town. Hang it, I hate to keep the truth in this +matter quiet, even for a moment, and I wouldn't do it, only to see +justice worked out. You see, Mr. Benson, such a fearful accident, from +one of my cars, will hurt my business until the whole truth is known. +But I'll stick to my word, and keep quiet." + +In three quarters of an hour's time the ambulance had arrived, and also +a car that Graves had sent to bring back Farnum and the three submarine +boys. + +"Don't run back at anything like speed, please," begged Mr. Farnum, with +a wan smile. It had cut the shipbuilder to the marrow to find his +friend, Pollard, so badly hurt. + +"Nothing faster than ten miles an hour," promised the chauffeur. + +Once in the city the auto followed the ambulance to the hospital, where +Farnum went to see that every possible attention was given his friend. +But Mr. Graves had already made splendid arrangements for the care of +both injured men. + +Then down to the Somerset went the able bodied survivors of the submarine +party. Though they said nothing in the hearing of the strange chauffeur, +they were no more than inside Jacob's Farnum's room when they let loose +their indignation. + +It was not many minutes, however, ere the chief of police arrived. + +"I've been talking with Graves, gentlemen," announced the chief, "and +I'm wholly satisfied that the rascal, Hodges, is the first one we want +to find. When we get him we'll try to make him tell who's behind him." + +"Did you get anything out of the four fellows you caught night before +last?" asked Jack Benson. + +"Not a word to amount to anything, so far," replied the chief. "But +their case was continued a week by the court, and I'll find a way to +make 'em talk! Just now, my whole thought is centered on finding +Hodges." + +"He isn't stopping at this hotel?" asked Jack. + +"Not much! He wouldn't wait for us to come and gather him in like +that," answered the chief. "No; I'm dragging the town, and I also have +a man at the railway station, and another watching the water front." + +"I can't understand how the fellow who called himself Hodges ever got +Judson to write him a letter of introduction to me," muttered Mr. Farnum. + +"Do you know Judson's writing?" asked the police chief, suspiciously. + +"No-o-o," admitted Mr. Farnum. "But the letter was written on the +letter-head of Judson's hotel." + +"Anyone can get a hotel letter-head," retorted the police official, +sagely. "You'd better let me have that letter, and I'll write Judson +to wire me whether he ever signed it." + +Farnum passed over the letter, though he muttered, disgustedly: + +"Good heavens, have I reached my present only to be taken in with a +faked letter of introduction?" + +"If you have," responded the chief of police, grimly, "you won't be the +only traveled, wide awake business man who has been caught by a trick +like that. In this country, where letters of introduction are passed +around as freely as cigars, it's very seldom that a man stops to wonder +whether the letter handed him is genuine." + +An hour later the chief was back, to report that a man answering Hodges' +description had taken a train north bound, not buying a ticket. + +"I've telegraphed to have the fellow arrested at a point along the +route," continued the police official. "I don't expect to get Hodges +as easily as that, though. He undoubtedly will have left the train +before it gets to where I have some one waiting to receive him." + +"But the young woman he called his daughter?" asked Jack + +"She wasn't with him. The fellow traveled alone. Of course, the +handsome daughter was only borrowed for the occasion." + +From the hospital came the word that unfortunate David Pollard was +resting comfortably. + +"The scheme was one that was intended to put our whole party out of +business," declared Jack Benson, his eyes shining savagely. "I won't +go so far as to say the Rhinds crowd wanted us killed, but they hoped +we'd all be too badly hurt to go on with the submarine tests. Oh, what +a rascally way to succeed in business!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +RADWIN DOESN'T SEE HIS BEST CHANCE + + +Late in the afternoon Farnum went up to the hospital to see David +Pollard again. + +As too many visitors would not be wise the shipbuilder represented, also, +his young submarine officers. He left them in the lobby of the Somerset. + +"Don't go away from here," smiled Mr. Farnum, wearily. "Don't let +anybody coax you away from here. Just stay right here, and I won't have +to worry about you while I'm away. We can't take any chances--can't +lose any more of our crowd." + +"Those are orders, sir," Jack Benson answered. "You'll be obeyed." + +For the better part of an hour the boys remained where Farnum had left +them. + +Then something happened that brought the flush of anger to all their +bronzed, honest young faces. + +One of the outer doors opened, and Fred Radwin, catching sight of the +submarine boys as he entered, hastened over to where they sat, a look +of pretended sympathy on his handsome but snake-like face. + +"Boys," he called, in a low voice, as all three rose as though to ward +off blows, "it was only little while ago that I heard of the fearful +accident. Poor Pollard! I want to tell you how heartily sorry I am to +hear--" + +"Stop right where you are, sir!" + +Jack Benson's voice thundered out. The young submarine captain did not +realize that he was using even more than a quarter-deck tone. Everyone +in the lobby turned to look on. A few, more curious than the others, +hastened to where the little group stood. + +"What--what do you mean?" stammered Fred Radwin, looking mightily +bewildered. + +"In the future, sir," and Jack's voice barely fell, "do us the honor not +to speak to us." + +"What on earth--" protested Radwin. + +"If you don't heed my request," Jack continued, angrily, "I don't +believe I shall be able to curb my desire to land both fists in your +face." + +Radwin drew back before the darkening, menacing glare in the eyes of +the young submarine captain. + +Hal, however, turned white--though from a cause that few would have +guessed. + +"Hold on, Benson! One moment--" protested Fred Radwin. + +"Oh, get out of my sight, this instant," quivered Jack, taking another +step toward his enemy. + +Before all the curious throng Fred Radwin, strangely enough, felt too +abashed, for the moment, to persist in his expressions of surprise. + +"I'll talk with you later," he muttered, with a sickly smile, then +turned away. + +"If you do," Jack called after him, "I'll--" + +Benson's voice died down as the young captain felt Hal Hastings's strong, +impassioned grip on his arm. + +Radwin, fortunately, did not turn, but kept on until he had taken himself +out of sight. + +Jack turned an inquiring glance on his chum's face. But Hal's warning +look seemed to say: + +"Silence! Wait!" + +"What was the row about?" asked a stranger among those who had pressed +about the boys. + +"Nothing," returned Eph Somers, shortly, glaring at his questioner. + +At a mute signal from Hal all three of the submarine boys seated +themselves once more. + +By degrees the little crowd melted away. + +Then Jack Benson turned to his chum, to ask, in a low voice: + +"What did you mean, Hal, old fellow? I know you had some good reason +for checking me as you did." + +"I was afraid you would hit Radwin," Hal murmured. + +"A case of nothing struck, if I had!" uttered Captain Jack, bitterly. + +"Oh, yes! You would have struck at our chances of winning out in these +submarine tests," murmured Hal Hastings. + +"What do you mean?" demanded Jack, looking startled. + +"If you had hit Radwin, in the presence of all those witnesses, you +would have been right in line to be arrested for assault." + +"Pooh!" jeered Captain Jack. "A small fine, which I could easily pay." + +"But the inconvenience of being locked up, at such a time!" asked Hal +Hastings. + +"Mr. Farnum would bail me out, quickly enough." + +"I don't believe you see all of the point yet," murmured Hal, earnestly. +"Suppose Radwin swore out a warrant against you for striking him. Then +suppose he paid a court officer to wait and serve the warrant just as +the boats were starting out on some new test cruise? Then you'd go +ashore, and we'd either have to go on without our captain, or else draw +out of the test. Fine business, that, when our first and only business +is to make the Pollard boats the number-one winners in as many tests as +possible!" + +"Great Caesar!" exploded Jack, realizing, now, what a narrow escape he +had had from another disaster to their common interests. + +"So you be on your guard," Hal went on with his wise counsel. "No +one--at least, no one in your own crowd--doubts your grit, or your +willingness to clinch with Radwin and fight it out to a copper-riveted +finish. I don't blame you for wanting to thrash Radwin every time you +think of poor Dave Pollard up at the hospital. I want to do it myself. +Radwin didn't think fast enough, or he'd have sneered at you, and +provoked you into hitting him. That was why I grabbed your right +arm--to stop you. It'll come to Radwin before long, what a fine +chance he missed. Then he'll put himself in your way--when there +are witnesses around." + +"Thank you, Hal," nodded Jack Benson, his voice unusually quiet. "You've +given me a good, big hint. I won't forget it. Until the tests are all +over Radwin may parade before me, and mock at me, if he wants. But +afterward--!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE GOAL OF THE LIGHTNING CRUISE + + +On three different days, thereafter, there were various tests in which +the submarine craft entered, each striving for points and leadership. + +On one of these days the event was firing with "dummy" torpedoes. This +work was carried on out in the bay. Then there were two other days of +firing, with actual, loaded torpedoes, the work, one day, being with +stationery naval targets. On the other day the work with loaded +torpedoes was directed against moving targets--perpendicular floats +towed by a tug with a very long hawser. + +While some of the firing was done by the crews of the respective +submarines, a good deal more was performed by members of the naval board, +in order that the boats, rather than the crews, might be tested. + +In each of these events the Pollard boats were the winners. At the +moving targets the Day Submarine took second place away from the Rhinds +boats; in the other events the Rhinds craft came in second, though +rather close to the records achieved by the Pollard submarines. + +Farnum was elated, of course. So were his young officers. Lieutenant +Danvers, who was on board at each test, was also much pleased, though he +did not express it. The cheering news was taken to David Pollard, in +hospital, and greatly lightened his days of suffering and waiting. + +And now, for two days, the grim-looking little submarine fleet had lain +at moorings. Not one was there among their crews but wondered whether +any further competitive tests were to be ordered. + +There had been no more meetings, on shore, between the Rhinds party and +our friends. Radwin had hoped for such a meeting, for, as Hal had +predicted, the dark-faced rascal had soon reasoned out that it would be +an excellent thing to stop a few blows delivered by Captain Jack Benson. + +But Farnum had kept his party on the "Benson" and the "Hastings." + +"Fred, I wonder whether we are going to have any more tests," demanded +Mr. Rhinds, as he and his secretary lingered over their breakfast +at the Somerset. + +"I wish I knew," sighed Radwin. + +"We've been beaten, a few points, by that Pollard crowd," muttered +Rhinds, his face lowering. "But we're not altogether walloped, Fred. +The government is going to buy a good many submarine boats. Now, it +isn't necessary for the government to have the boats all of one type, +is it?" + +"Of course not," Radwin assented. + +"Just so," continued the older man, "now, we've made a pretty good +showing, after all. So I have already begun with some telegrams to the +Senators and Congressmen of our state--Oh, you mustn't feel that you +always have advance information on all I'm doing, young man," chuckled +Rhinds, noting the look of surprise in his companion's face. "I've +started with our state's members in Congress, and soon I shall begin +to go at 'em harder. Now, despite the fact that the Pollard boats have +been able to gain a few points over us, I believe I can engineer +matters so that the government will order two types of submarine, +instead of one. In fact, Fred, when the government gives out its big +orders for submarine boats, I hope to land forty per cent., at least, +of the business." + +Fred Radwin glanced cautiously around him, to make sure that no waiters +stood within hearing distance. Then he hissed, sharply: + +"Forty per cent. of the business, you say? I still intend to land one +hundred per cent. of the submarine business for our company?" + +"How?" asked the older man, eagerly. + +"I'll think it over a while, before I tell you my definite plans." + +"Be careful, Fred," warned Rhinds, "not to make any moves that will be +our undoing!" + +"Have I gotten you into any trouble yet, Mr. Rhinds?" + +"No," admitted the older man, though he added, half-jeeringly: + +"Nor have you beaten the Pollard crowd at any point along the road, that +I can remember." + +"Wait!" retorted Radwin, mysteriously. + +These two villains were just sipping from their last cups of coffee when, +even in the dining room, there reached their ears the muffled sound of +gunfire from the bay. + +"What's that?" demanded Radwin. "I want to hear the rest of that!" + +He hurried through the dining room to the front of the lobby. + +"There it goes," he cried, as Rhinds, puffing somewhat, joined him. +"First, the gunfire, then seven long whistles, followed by--wait!" + +As the whistling ceased another gun boomed forth. + +"That's the emergency signal, to call all hands back who belong on +submarines," uttered Radwin, wheeling about. "We must get our hats and +coats, and hustle down to the water front." + +Radwin, had in truth, read the signal aright. It was the signal that +the naval board had announced in case, at any time, there should be +sudden, official news for the officers and crews of the rival submarines. + +"What can it be, I wonder?" pondered John Rhinds, as they hurried +through a street that led to the pier. + +"Probably some test in which the board wants us to start without any +preparation," replied Radwin. + +"I wish I knew what it was," muttered Rhinds. + +"That's just the way every man-jack aboard the submarine boats is +feeling about it," jeered Radwin. "Jove, I hope the test, to-day, is +one in which we stand a chance to beat the Pollard crowd!" + +Jacob Farnum had just started from the "Hastings," in a shore boat, when +the first gun boomed forth. The shipbuilder had been on his way to see +his friend, at the hospital, when he heard the first gun. Stopping the +rowers, he quickly comprehended when the whistle blasts started. He +accordingly directed that he be put back alongside the "Hastings." + +Jack, Hal and Eph had come tumbling up on deck at the first realization +of the signal. Grant Andrews and his men were no longer on board, +having gone, at daylight, to their boarding house on shore. + +"What do you suppose is in the air, Jack?" called Mr. Farnum. + +"I don't know, sir. But whatever it is, we're ready. We can start, on +anything, at the drop of a handkerchief. Gasoline tanks full, +compressed air by the cubic yard, storage batteries charged." + +"It would be hard to catch you youngsters unprepared," laughed the +shipbuilder, appreciatively. + +They were still on deck, waiting and wondering, when they saw the +president and secretary of the Rhinds company put off from shore in +haste. + +"They don't mean to be left," sneered Eph. + +"They're pretty badly left already," muttered Captain Jack, bitterly. +"They haven't beaten us, so far, by a single point." + +"I suppose they're hoping they will to-day, whatever the test is to +be," muttered Hal Hastings. + +Fifteen minutes more passed. Then a little flock of six-oared cutters +left the side of the gunboat "Oakland." In the stern-sheets of each +cutter sat a naval officer in uniform. + +"There's Lieutenant Danvers," cried Jack, eagerly. "He brings us our +instructions, whatever they are." + +In a few moments more Danvers was along side, making his way up to the +platform deck. In his right hand Danvers carried an official looking +sealed envelope. + +In his eager curiosity Jacob Farnum extended a hand to take the envelope, +but Danvers drew it back. + +"Pardon me," murmured the shipbuilder, confusedly. "I should have known +better. The communication is, of course, for the captain." + +Danvers turned the envelope over to Captain Jack Benson, who broke the +seal, drawing out the paper enclosed. This is a part of what the +submarine boy read aloud: + +_"'The Navy Department has just reported, by wireless, that a +semi-submerged derelict, evidently that of a three-master schooner, is +drifting in the paths of navigation at a point 385 miles southwest by +south of this present station. The Department suggests that it would +afford an example of practical use for submarines, if those now on this +station would accompany a gunboat, at full speed for cruising, and +attempt to discover and blow up this derelict.'"_ + +"Great!" glowed Eph. "I vote for it." + +"So do those on the other boats, if the observable excitement is to be +taken as an indication," laughed Mr. Farnum. + +"This letter goes on to request," announced Benson, "that the commander +of each submarine willing to enter this affair signal to the 'Oakland' +by hoisting the signal 'Ready.' Do you hear that, Eph?" + +Somers made a dash for the signal chest. In another moment the +appropriate bit of bunting was fluttering on the halliard at the top of +the signal mast. + +"We are directed," Jack read on, "to be ready within thirty minutes. We +must follow the 'Oakland' down the bay at a cruising speed of sixteen +miles an hour. Once out of the bay, the 'Oakland' will signal our +formation to us." + +"Do you see the boat the Rhinds signal is going up on?" laughed Hal +Hastings. "It is going up on the submarine 'Thor.' According to the old +Norsemen tales Thor was The Thunderer--also the fellow who struck with +the big hammer. It looks like a Rhinds boast that they are to do big +things on this lightning cruise." + +"Yes; Thor was an old Norse god," muttered Captain Jack. "And the early +Norsemen were very largely pirates. Perhaps we are to take the signal +on the 'Thor' as an intimation that Rhinds is out to play pirate in +earnest on this cruise." + +As Benson uttered these words he felt an odd little shiver run over him. +Yet he gave it no more thought. Little idea had he, at that moment, how +prophetic his words were likely to be! + +In half an hour, as planned, the "Oakland," after firing a warning gun, +steamed away from her moorings. Gradually the gunboat's speed +increased, until the full sixteen miles were being made--miles, instead +of knots, since gasoline boats, like these submarines, are usually rated +by miles instead of by the longer "knot." + +It was a rattling rate of speed to exact from these little craft, when +it was considered that the gait would have to be continued, without +break, for at least twenty-four hours. + +Eph was at the wheel, at the start, and Jack standing back by the +conning tower. Mr. Farnum had gone below, for a nap, as he intended to +relieve Hal in the engine room after a few hours. + +"Benson," remarked Danvers, approaching the submarine boy, "I guess your +remark of a few minutes ago exactly defines this trip." + +"What remark?" asked Jack. + +"You spoke of it as a lightning cruise. It is going to be one, indeed, +for these little submarine craft." + +"Our boat can stand it, I think," smiled the submarine skipper. + +"And so can the Rhinds boat, probably. But some of the others will find +themselves sorely put to to keep up the speed for twenty-four hours." + +"And, if they don't?" queried Jack. + +Danvers shrugged his shoulders. + +"Then I guess they'll have to be satisfied with being left far behind, +unless they signal that they're in actual distress." + +"This speed," mused Captain Jack, "must be part of the government's +plans for another test. The Navy Department must have planned to see +whether any of these boats could stand such a gait for twenty-four long +hours." + +"I couldn't tell you if I knew," remarked Lieutenant Danvers, with a +quizzical look, then turned and strolled away. + +"And I guess," muttered the submarine boy to himself, "that that's about +as near as a fellow can go to giving a tip, once he has had the Navy +muzzle padlocked to his jaws." + +Some of the submarines in this long race--for such it was--were better +equipped as to the number of the crew. The Rhinds had this advantage, +carrying a captain and four men, in addition to Rhinds himself and his +secretary. Yet Jack and Eph relieved each other regularly at the wheel, +catching long naps between. Hal and Mr. Farnum did the same thing with +the engine room, and the "Hastings" kept well in the van through the +day, and also through the long night that followed. + +Two hours after daylight the "Oakland" signaled to the submarines to run +up close to this "parent vessel," the gunboat. + +"Further orders, of course," muttered Jack, who was at the wheel at the +time. "Well, we're not such a very long run, now, from the reported +location of that derelict." + +The fleet was wholly out of sight of land. The wind was fresh and the +sea lively with short, choppy waves, crested by white-caps. Yet, for +boats as staunch as these submarines, sea was not a difficult one for +boat handling. + +One after another, while still going at full speed, the submarines drew +close to the "Oakland." One after another, as signaled, the boats put +in within easy hailing distance of the gunboat. + +"The 'Hastings' will keep to the same South West, by South course, but +at a distance of two miles off this vessel's port bow," came the order. +"The 'Thor' will take up similar position, two miles off the port side +of the 'Hastings.'" + +The three remaining torpedo boats were assigned to positions +corresponding on the starboard side of the "Oakland." + +In this order the boats went ahead at a speed reduced to fourteen miles. +The front of the line extended over some ten miles; in reality the line +of vision extended much further than that. Unless the semi-submerged +derelict had moved much faster than such derelicts usually do, it was +difficult to see how the wreck could get through this line of +exploration. + +Jack Benson pressed a signal that brought Hal Hastings up on deck. + +"Rouse Eph and Mr. Farnum," ordered the young skipper. "We've got to +have all hands on, now. And call Lieutenant Danvers, also. He's not +allowed to help us, but he'll be anxious to see what is going on." + +As soon as Eph Somers reached deck Jack Benson turned the wheel over to +him. Then the young captain got his marine glasses, stationing himself, +most of the time, beside the deck wheel. + +"If it's in any way possible," muttered Jack, "I want to be the first to +sight that derelict. I want the honor of sinking her to come to us. +It will all be points in the game we are fighting for." + +As Benson spoke he swung his glass around to cover the deck of the +"Thor," that craft being, now, her full two miles away off the port beam. + +"Rhinds has his whole crowd on deck, too," growled young Benson, using +his powerful marine glass with interest. "Yes; everyone on deck, except +two men for the engine room." + +At this moment Lieutenant Danvers stepped on deck, looking as though he +had slept well. The naval officer carried a glass very much like the +submarine skipper's. + +"It's almost mean of me to bring a glass on deck with me," laughed +Danvers. "Under the rules I'm forbidden to give you any information +I may find for myself." + +Jack nodded pleasantly, then turned to sweep the sea ahead. At a +distance of a few miles it would be easy enough to miss the +half-submerged derelict. + +For some three hours the flotilla swept on, with active officers on +every deck. The naval board had ordered this new formation ere reaching +the probable location of the derelict. + +"We haven't passed the thing, anyway," Jack muttered to Eph. "The sea +isn't rough enough for that to be possible." + +Part of the time young Benson had surrendered his glass to his first +officer, while the captain himself stood by the wheel. + +But now, Jack was again pacing the deck, while Eph, his eyes mostly on +the compass, steered steadily by course. + +Suddenly, Jack Benson started. Quickly he wiped the outer lenses of his +glass, then looked again. + +"See anything?" demanded Eph. + +"Yes, sirree! And the 'Thor' is almost a mile nearer than we are! It's +the derelict--not a doubt of it!" + +Like a flash Jack sprang to the wheel, ringing the bell for full speed. + +"Eph, hustle below! Tell Hal we've sighted the derelict. Tell him to +hump the engines. Tell him I don't care how much we overheat the +machinery so that we don't blow the craft up. Jump!" + +Eph collided with Jacob Farnum, who had started up from below, but he +brushed the shipbuilder aside, rushing below as though death pursued him. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +JACK GIVES THE ORDER, "FIRE!" + + +The naval officer, too, had made out a bobbing something on the sea, +ahead, over at port, which he took to be the long sought derelict. + +The lieutenant could not say anything, but, with glass still at his eyes, +he leaned back against the conning tower, drawing in his breath sharply. + +"Want me to take the wheel?" called out Eph, as he reached deck again. + +"Yes. I want to keep the glass to my eyes." + +Just one look did Benson take at the supposed derelict. Then he swung +his gaze around upon the "Thor." + +"They've seen our speed-burst," cried the young submarine skipper. "I +don't believe they had spotted the derelict, but now they see us shooting +ahead, to cross their course, and that has told them the secret. Yes! +There they go ahead, and pointing straight. They've caught up the old +wreck--through our glasses!" + +It was provoking, but the rival boat, besides being nearer at the start, +had also started forward at greater speed. + +"This is the 'Thor's' trick," thought Lieutenant Danvers to himself. +"Too bad, too. I'd like to have seen the boys take it." + +Jacob Farnum's private view, not expressed, agreed with the naval +officer's. + +But Jack Benson? He simply couldn't admit any victory for the +rival--not until it was actually won. + +"Swing a half-point off port bow, Eph--steady, now!" breathed the young +skipper, intensely. + +Down below, Hal Hastings was performing as near to wonders as was +possible with a gasoline engine. Jacob Farnum stood just inside the +conning tower, prepared to rush below with any other orders. + +"Yes, it's the derelict!" shouted Benson, presently. "I can make out +the stumps of two masts now. We'll be there in a few minutes." + +"We'll be lucky if we don't get there too late," grumbled Somers. "Shall +I steer direct for the old wreck, or take the course from you?" + +"Better take it from me for a time," Benson replied. "My glass will be +more dependable than your naked eye." + +The "Thor," also, was heading straight for the derelict. So far, the +Rhinds boat was still nearer. + +It began to look, however, as if the "Thor's" engines were not quite as +fast as those of the other Rhinds boat, the "Zelda." + +"Are we going to make it?" breathed Eph, the perspiration of sheer strain +standing out on his forehead. + +"Yes!" almost barked Jack Benson. + +"Sure thing, is it?" persisted Somers. + +"Sure--only don't talk too much," growled young Benson. + +It was the grit, the dogged determination of the born commander--the +natural leader of men. + +A moment later Jack turned a white face toward the shipbuilder. + +"Mr. Farnum, tell Hal he'll have to pour the oil in faster. We've got +to have more speed." + +Farnum did not even wait for the second sentence. He dived below. All +of a sudden the "Hastings" was seen to take a notable leap forward. Then +she settled down to a more rapid, steady gait. + +Just inside the conning tower Jacob Farnum stood again. In his right +hand he clutched a doubled-up handkerchief, with which he made frequent +dabs at his face. + +The shipbuilder knew that the present speed, with its dangerous +overheating of the engines, spelled blank disaster if continued for long. + +Hal Hastings, down below, standing like a white wraith beside his +engines, realized the same thing. + +So, too, did Jack Benson, the young skipper, for whom, in this mad +moment, there was but one word in the language--"win!" + +Eph didn't stop to realize it. He was worrying about straight steering, +and he couldn't worry about more than one thing at a time. + +Lieutenant Danvers must have known what was patent to every other mind +but he neither said nor did anything. He was a Navy officer, trained +not to display emotion. + +"Good!" came from Captain Jack's lips. Yet, in the intensity of his +strain it was a groan, rather than a note of exultation. "We're cutting +into the 'Thor's' water." + +A few moments more, and Benson found his craft slantingly across the +Rhinds boat's course, well ahead. + +"Now, we'll show you!" quavered Jack Benson, as he briefly shook his fist +back at the wicked rivals. + +"If we don't blow the lid off this sea-turtle!" muttered young Somers, +to himself. + +At the youthful captain's sharp order Eph swung the course around. + +"Now, drive straight toward the derelict, Eph!" breathed the young +commander, his eyes glittering. "I leave the deck in your hands for a +minute. You're broadside on, now. Keep driving, steady, as you are!" + +As Farnum saw young Benson dashing his way the shipbuilder understood +and darted down the stairs. + +After him plunged Jack Benson. Below, both became cooler, for the task +in hand must not be bungled. On one of the trucks they dragged a torpedo +forward, fitting it in the tube. + +As he closed the after port behind the torpedo, Jack bent over to place +Jacob Farnum's hand on the firing lever. + +"Stand there, sir, till you've done it!" quavered Captain Jack. + +"Will you signal the order?" + +"No, sir! You'll get it by voice." + +As Benson wheeled, dashing away, he had an instant's glimpse, sideways, +of Hal Hastings's face. Great as Jack's haste was, that look at his +chum's face haunted him. + +There was no time for sentiment, now, though. It was literally do or +die! + +The "Thor" was now three hundred yards astern, making frantic efforts to +lessen the distance, yet actually losing time. + +Ahead, the derelict was now some fifteen hundred yards away. The +half-sunken wreck still presented a broadside, as shown by the positions +of two stumps of masts. + +"What range are you going to fire at?" asked Eph Somers. + +"The torpedo is set for six hundred yards; we'll fire at three hundred." + +Captain Jack's voice was cooler, steadier, now. The first great strain +had subsided. He was cool, tense, now--though not a whit less +determined to win at all hazards. + +As there was still some time to spare, and Eph could handle the +"Hastings" as well as any other helmsman on earth, Jack stepped back to +the conning tower. + +Lieutenant Danvers was there, though with his gaze astern. + +"I can just picture old Rhinds," laughed Captain Jack, a bit harshly. +"He's saying hard things about us, for cutting in on his course and +getting the derelict away from him." + +Danvers laughed. + +"The old fellow is swearing a blue streak, and threatening himself with +an apoplectic stroke every instant." + +"You don't seem to love Mr. Rhinds very noticeably," grimaced the naval +officer. + +"If I don't," voiced Jack, "neither do any of our crowd. And the reason +is more than mere business rivalry, too." + +Lieutenant Danvers knew nothing whatever of the dastardly attempts +against the Pollard crowd that Rhinds and Radwin had engineered. + +It was not a time, however, in which to waste precious moments looking +back at the more tardy rival boat. + +Jack wheeled, bracing himself against the conning tower. They were now +within eight hundred yards of the derelict's broadside-on. + +How the "Hastings" seemed to crawl over the last of the intervening water +space! Yet Hal realized, if Jack did not, how swiftly the submarine was +racing. + +"Five hundred yards!" clicked Jack, and stepped inside the conning tower, +snatching up a megaphone. + +Four hundred and fifty--four hundred--three-fifty--three-twenty-five! +"Fire!" + +That last word was bellowed below through the megaphone. Jack, his eyes +staring forward, saw something leap near the bow, and saw an upward dash +of spray. The torpedo had left the tube. + +"Hard-aport, Eph! Swing her right over. So!" + +From his own post in the conning tower Benson signaled for slow speed, +now. It would never do to stop the overheated engines utterly. Besides, +seaway was needed, with the rival craft coming up behind. + +His work in the conning tower done, Captain Jack sprang out on the +platform deck, bounding beside Lieutenant Danvers at the starboard rail. +Through the manhole opening of, the tower the shipbuilder soon thrust +his uncovered head. + +Was the torpedo, so carefully aimed, going to strike and do its work? + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE MESSAGE OF TERROR + + +"Is it a hit, do you think?" gasped Jack. + +"I think--" began the naval officer. + +Boom! It came suddenly, sullenly. A column of spray shot up between +the two mast-stumps of the derelict. The rising water reached a height +of eighty or ninety feet, then came down again like a heavy rain. + +But the wreck itself? + +One of the mast-stumps tottered, then the other. In an instant more +nothing of the derelict was to be seen, saving some floating wreckage +made up of less water-logged wood. + +"A fair hit, I'll wager my commission!" cried Danvers, eagerly. + +"Yes," nodded Jacob Farnum. "That's the last of the derelict. She's +removed from the paths of navigation." + +There could be no doubt of the completeness of the work done by the +torpedo from the "Hastings." A broad grin now appeared on the +shipbuilder's lately white face. + +"Mr. Farnum, will you tell Hal, whenever he thinks best, to slow down to +mere headway?" + +"Aye, aye, Captain," sang the shipbuilder, jovially, and disappeared +from view. + +"Benson, I congratulate you on your nerve," spoke Lieutenant Danvers, as +he turned, his eyes glowing, to the youthful submarine commander. + +"I don't know as I deserve that good word," muttered Jack, slowly, +shaking his head. "It was win or die with us." + +"I realize that." + +"And I took a big chance of blowing our engines out." + +"I thought so, at the time." + +"Then, Lieutenant, you must realize that I risked your life, as well +as ours." + +"I knew it," nodded Danvers, coolly. + +Then he rested a hand half affectionately on young Benson's nearer +shoulder. + +"My boy, what is risking a life or two, when there's such a prize to +win--such a naval lesson to be learned and taught? American naval +history is full of the names of officers and men who have thrown away +their lives in learning something new for the benefit of the service." + +"I like that way of putting it," replied Captain Jack, though he spoke +soberly. "I had a notion I was pretty wicked when I took such chances." + +"It would have been criminal, if it hadn't been your purpose to show +what a craft of this type can do when pushed in emergencies. But I have +learned much to-day that will stand me in great stead, should I ever be +in command of a flotilla of submarines in war time." + +"Then I suppose I ought to forgive myself for my recklessness," laughed +Jack. + +"You want to forget it, Benson. The thing you want to remember is that +men who serve in navies sign their lives away when they enter the +service. All must be sacrificed, at the first instant of need, to the +service and to the Flag!" + +"That idea would frighten some mothers, wouldn't it?" smiled Captain +Jack Benson. + +"Fighting battles is not a woman's business," replied Danvers, soberly +and reverently. "Her task is to rear sons who shall be unafraid, and +to leave the rest to the God of Battles." + +The "Hastings" now drifted so lazily over the waters that Eph stood by +the wheel, one hand resting indolently against the uppermost spokes. + +The "Thor" had headed off, after watching the explosion of the torpedo, +and was now considerably off the "Hastings's" port beam. The "Oakland," +on the other hand, was heading up for an official view of what wasn't +there in the shape of a derelict. + +As she came in close the gunboat sounded three long, hoarse whistles. + +"There are your congratulations from the board, Benson," laughed the +naval lieutenant, then walked over to port. Jacob Farnum slipped out +on the platform deck to hear any hail that might come from Uncle Sam's +gunboat. + +Danvers was no longer interested in the scene. Whatever was to come, he +felt, would be tame compared with what he had recently seen. + +So he stood, looking out dreamily over the waters at port. He saw the +"Thor" head for the "Hastings," as though intending to come up. Then +she veered off, heading eastward. At this instant the naval officer +happened to have his glass to his eyes. He had just counted the number +of people in sight on the Rhinds craft. + +"All but one of the Rhinds crowd on deck," thought Mr. Danvers. "I +don't make out that fellow, Radwin. He must be taking the engine trick." + +Jack Benson also sauntered over to port side, though not with any +intention of addressing the naval officer. Benson was not thinking of +anything in particular as he glanced out over the waves. + +Then, all of a sudden, the young submarine commander sprang alert with +suspicion--next, certainty and horror! + +Out there on the water something was moving--something headed toward +the "Hastings." It came on with a swift, cleaving movement. There was +a suspicion of a fin throwing up a little spray in the path of motion. + +It was horrible--unbelievable! + +The mere suspicion galvanized him into action. + +Captain Jack's feet barely seemed to touch the deck as he leaped forward. + +Eph was at the wheel, but there was no time to shout a frenzied order +that might be misunderstood. + +Besides, in the instant that he was in the air, young Benson had no +sharply defined plan of what he was going to do. + +But that fin over to port was the half-visible upper part of a moving +torpedo! It was headed so as to intercept the "Hastings" on her slow, +forward course. + +If he rang for speed ahead, Captain Jack knew it might not come swiftly +enough to carry his boat and its human load ahead to safety. + +In any case, it must be a job of seconds. If Hal responded slowly to +the signal--then destruction! + +All this seemed to flash like lightning through the young commander's +head as he made that leap for the wheel. + +Somers being in the way, young Benson flung him violently aside. + +Captain Jack's left hand grasped a spoke of the steering wheel; his +right hand signaled violently for speed astern. + +Would Hal respond in time to save them all? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE FINDINGS ON THE "THOR" + + +It was a breathless moment. + +Captain Jack Benson, resting one hand on the wheel, gazed off at port +side with fascinated stare. + +Almost instantly a grating could be heard that must have come from the +propeller shafts, though the young skipper, at that moment, was +incapable of thinking of anything save that tiny fin-line out on the +water. + +Then the speed ahead of the submarine boat stopped. In another moment +the little steel craft was creeping backward. + +On came that fin-line. + +There was nothing more that Jack could do, save to hold the wheel rigid. + +On for the bow of the "Hastings" came the fin-line. Would that moving +torpedo strike, hurling them all to destruction? + +It must have been by a hair's breath, but that fin-line crossed the bow +of the submarine. It had gone on, beyond--harmlessly, now! + +"What's that you're saying, Eph?" demanded Jack. "Oh, yes; you want to +know why I bowled you over in that fashion. Because there wasn't time +to speak. I was crazy to get the reverse gear at work, and take us out +of the path of that torpedo aimed for us." + +"Torpedo?" demanded Eph Somers, thunderstruck. + +"Torpedo?" repeated Jacob Farnum, in bewilderment. + +"Yes," broke in Lieutenant Danvers, stepping forward. "See, its force +is expended, and now it's floating on the water over there off the +starboard bow." + +Jacob Farnum stared at it as though utterly unable to comprehend +anything. + +"I saw the thing coming our way," went on the naval officer, hastily, +"though not as soon as Benson did. By the time that I knew it, he was +acting. So I held my peace, for, if Benson had failed--well, nothing +would have mattered much--then!" + +In a few more crisp, swift sentences; Danvers told the rest of it +adding: + +"It was Benson's quick coolness that saved us all from going skyward." + +"No, it wasn't," broke in the youthful skipper, decisively. "It was Hal, +who was right by his engines, who saved us. Had he acted on the signal +a second and a half later that torpedo would have struck us plumb and +fair." + +"But who could have let a torpedo loose in that fashion?" stammered +Farnum. "What accident--" + +"Accident!" broke in Jack, sneeringly. + +"Accident!" repeated Danvers, scornfully. + +"Well, then, how--" + +"Mr. Farnum," broke in Jack Benson, sternly, "that torpedo was fired by +design, with intent to sink us!" + +"What? Who--" + +"I can't make any positive charge," it was Lieutenant Danvers's turn to +say. "But I can offer certain evidence that I'll stick to anywhere. +Just a few seconds before that torpedo got so close to us I was noting +the Rhinds boat, the 'Thor.' Her course was toward us, briefly. Then +she turned off on another course." + +"Do you mean to say that the Rhinds boat was turned our way at just the +time when that torpedo could have left her, headed for us?" demanded +Jacob Farnum. + +"That's the whole indication," replied Lieutenant Danvers, firmly. + +"Then what are we doing, waiting here?" cried the shipbuilder, angrily. +"Jack, now that that torpedo is spent, and lying harmless on the water, +start up speed and head over that way. Go carefully, for, remember, +any sudden shock against the war-head of the torpedo would set it off." + +Jack signaled for slow speed ahead, the response coming promptly. + +"Somers," directed Lieutenant Danvers, "get the signal bunting out, +and I'll help you rig a signal to the 'Oakland.'" + +It was the first time, on any of the cruises, that Danvers had attempted +to give an order, or to take any part in the handling of the craft. But +now he was about to make a serious report, as an officer of the United +States Navy. + +In a very few moments, Danvers and Somers working together, the necessary +flags were out, and knotted to the line in their proper order. + +"Hoist away!" ordered the lieutenant, himself giving a hand on the +halliard. + +Up the signal mast went the line of bunting, fluttering. The little +flags spelled out this message to the gunboat: + +"Evidence of serious foul play. Join us to investigate." + +Almost immediately there came a signal from the bridge of the gunboat, +to show that the message had been read. + +Jack was now slowing down speed, making ready to lie to, a hundred yards +or less from the floating torpedo. + +"Mr. Farnum, Hal's always at his post," said Jack, "but call down to +him to be sure to stick particularly close for the next few minutes. If +the wind shifts, and heads that torpedo our way, I want to be sure of +instant speed for getting out of the way." + +The gunboat was now cruising leisurely over to where the "Hastings" +waited. Danvers signed to the officer on the "Oakland's" bridge to +keep an especial eye on the floating torpedo. + +As the "Oakland" slowed up, a cutter, in charge of an ensign, put away +from the gunboat's side. + +"Ensign," shouted Lieutenant Danvers, "we shall feel obliged if you can +lie alongside of that torpedo, and render the war-head harmless. We +believe the torpedo to be fully loaded, and ready for instant action." + +"I'll do what I can, sir, and as promptly as possible," replied the +ensign, saluting his superior officer. + +A few minutes later the working part of the torpedo's war-head had been +removed by the boat's crew, and the torpedo itself was taken in tow. + +"Now, Ensign, run in alongside, and take me on board," announced +Lieutenant Danvers. "Mr. Benson, you'll go over to the 'Oakland' with +me, of course?" + +By this time the "Thor" had come about, and up within hailing distance +of her Pollard rival. + +"What's wrong? What has happened?" demanded John C. Rhinds, in a hoarse, +croaking voice. + +None aboard the "Hastings" took the trouble even to look in the direction +of the speaker. + +"Can't you hear, aboard the 'Hastings'?" insisted Rhinds. + +But he had no better result than from his first hail. + +In the meantime, Danvers and Jack, on reaching the gunboat, went at once +before a council composed of the naval board and the commander of the +gunboat. + +The two witnesses told their story speedily and clearly. + +"Can you swear that the torpedo was fired from the 'Thor,' Lieutenant?" +inquired Captain Magowan, president of the naval board. + +"I cannot, sir, but all the evidence points to the truth of my suspicion. +For one thing, while some of the submarines were in line with us, yet +all were too far away to drive a torpedo that far. Besides, as I have +stated, the 'Thor' turned briefly toward us, at just the time when the +torpedo would have been fired from her, then swung around promptly." + +All of the naval officers present showed, in their faces, the horror +they felt over the situation. + +"It does not seem to me," declared Captain Magowan, glancing around at +his associates, "that there can be any doubt as to our course. The +evidence, though wholly circumstantial, is about as strong as it could +be." + +"Besides which, sir," advanced Mr. Danvers, "The 'Thor' was provided +with a stated number of torpedoes." + +"Four," nodded Captain Magowan; "just as was the case with each of the +other submarine boats." + +"Then, if you search the 'Thor,' and find but three torpedoes aboard, +now--" + +"That will be all the evidence needed." admitted Captain Magowan. "We +will make the search, and, on finding but three torpedoes aboard the +'Thor,' we will place everyone on board under arrest, and send the +'Thor' into port under charge of one of our own naval crews. Gentlemen, +there is no need of further delay. Commander Ellis, I will ask of you +a cutter, a crew, a corporal and a file of marines." + +"The boat and men shall be ready at once, sir," replied the gunboat's +commander, hastening from the room. + +Grimly the three officers comprising the board rose and hooked their +swords to their belts, for they were going on an official visit. + +Nor was any time lost. Jack Benson and Lieutenant Danvers were ordered +to accompany the members of the board. + +So John Rhinds's question was destined to have a prompt answer, even if +of a kind different from what he had expected. + +On the platform deck of the "Thor," as the cutter approached, stood +several men whose faces expressed the utmost astonishment. + +And again Rhinds inquired, this time with a little tremor in his voice: + +"What's wrong gentlemen? What has happened?" + +"We're coming aboard," retorted Captain Magowan. "Have your men stand +by to catch our lines." + +John Rhinds submitted, in silence, while the members of the board, the +corporal's file of marine rifles and Lieutenant Danvers boarded the +"Thor." But when Jack started to bring up the rear Rhinds's voice rose +in angry protest. + +"That young Benson fellow can't come aboard here!" cried the old man, +his cheeks purple, his eyes aflame with anger. "Benson represents a +rival submarine company!" + +"If he represents a dozen companies, he's coming aboard this time," +retorted Captain Magowan, coldly. "Corporal, see to it that no +interference with Mr. Benson is attempted." + +"Yes, sir," replied the corporal, saluting. + +So Jack came aboard, and took his place quietly beside Lieutenant +Danvers. + +"Mr. Rhinds," began Captain Magowan, solemnly, "a torpedo only just +barely missed striking the 'Hastings' a while ago. We have evidence that +your craft was pointing nose-on to the 'Hastings,' just before the +torpedo appeared by the Pollard craft." + +"Do you mean, sir, that we are charged with--or suspected of--firing +a torpedo at a rival submarine boat?" demanded John Rhinds, heavily, in +a voice vibrating with astonishment. + +"Some of the evidence seems to point that way," returned Captain Magowan, +dryly. + +"Why, sir," began Rhinds, indignantly, "it's preposterous. It's--" + +But Captain Magowan cut him short by a wave of the hand. + +"What we want, now, Mr. Rhinds, is to go below and examine your stock of +loaded torpedoes. You should have four on board. If you prove to have +only three--" + +"Step this way, gentlemen. Follow me," begged Mr. Rhinds, making a +rather ceremonious bow. Then he led the way below. Danvers and Jack +followed the others. + +And here all hands encountered a tremendous surprise. The "Thor" still +carried her full supply of four loaded torpedoes! + +Over the intense astonishment that followed this discovery came the oily, +tones of John C. Rhinds: + +"Now, gentlemen, I won't speak of an apology, for I know you must have +strong seeming reasons before you went so far as to suspect anyone +aboard the 'Thor' of an atrocious crime. But, in the face of the +evidence you have here, you will admit that it is impossible to attach +any guilt to anyone aboard this craft." + +"Well, Mr. Benson," broke in Captain Magowan, dumfounded. + +"So it would seem," murmured the captain's two puzzled associates on +the board. + +"What the deuce can it mean?" was what Lieutenant Danvers said, but he +was discreet enough to say it under his breath. + +"Come, young Benson," challenged John Rhinds, "even you must admit that +the 'Thor' shows a clean bill of moral health!" + +"I'll admit that two and two make five, and that the moon is made of +sage cheese," retorted Captain Jack. "I'll admit that the north pole +is steam-heated. But--" + +"Well, Mr. Benson," broke in Captain Magowan, crisply. "Why do you +hesitate?" + +"I believe, Captain," Jack went on, "that there are several questions +that can yet be asked." + +"Ask them, then, Mr. Benson," directed the president of the naval board. + +"Yes, sir. Yet I would prefer that the questions be asked on deck, +in the presence of the entire crew, and also of the naval officer who +had been stationed on this craft during the cruise." + +Ensign Pike was the officer of the Navy who had been on board the "Thor." +Pike had remained up on the platform deck during this scene. + +"Very good," nodded Captain Magowan. "We will return to the deck. I can +see that there are many questions to be asked." + +On the deck, on first boarding, Jack Benson had noticed the absence of +Fred Radwin. While they were below Jack had caught a glimpse of Radwin +in the "Thor's" engine room. + +When the naval board and the others reached the deck Captain Magowan had +Captain Driggs, of the "Thor," and the members of the boat's crew lined +up together. + +"Have you any questions that you wish to ask, Mr. Benson?" the president +of the board inquired. + +"Yes, sir. At the time that the torpedo passed our boat I would like to +know just who of the 'Thor's' complement were below." + +"Can you answer that, Mr. Driggs?" demanded Captain Magowan. + +Driggs was a bronzed, shrewd-looking man of forty, with a face that +looked rather sound and wholesome. + +"Yes, sir," replied Driggs, promptly. "Mr. Radwin had volunteered to +relieve the man on duty in the engine room. Mr. Radwin was below at +the time, sir." + +"And who else?" + +"No one else at that time, sir." + +"I think I can confirm that, Captain," broke in Lieutenant Danvers. "I +had just studied the deck of this craft through my marine glass, and I +remember remarking to myself that Radwin appeared to be the only one of +this boat's complement who was not on deck." + +Fred Radwin was now summoned, Captain Magowan and Jack both plying him +with questions. It all came to nothing, however. Radwin remained +wholly cool and gave his inquisitors no satisfaction. + +Ensign Pike stated that he had had no knowledge of any torpedo having +been driven from the "Thor." Yet Pike admitted that this might very +easily have happened without his knowing it, since the discharge of a +torpedo would hardly make enough noise to carry from below to the after +part of the platform deck. + +"But, anyway," insisted John Rhinds, blandly, "you must admit, Captain, +that our possession of the full number of torpedoes allowed us is proof +positive that we haven't been firing even one of them." + +"That showing is certainly in your favor, Mr. Rhinds," admitted the +president of the naval board, coldly. "I cannot see that the evidence +at present available allows of my ordering anyone under arrest. I am +bound, in view of the fact that suspicion has pointed your way, to state +that I intend to leave the corporal and four of the marine privates +aboard. On the home cruise a marine sentry will be posted, all the +time, close to the after port of your torpedo tube." + +"It is humiliating--very," sighed Mr. Rhinds. "Still, I shall be the +last to offer any objection to any arrangement that seems wise to the +members of the naval board." + +The corporal and four of his marines were therefore left under command +of Ensign Pike, with instructions to see to it that constant guard was +kept by the torpedo tube. + +No allusion to the evidence could be made before the members of the +cutter's crew on the way back. Captain Magowan led his own party to +the office of the commander of the gunboat. + +"Er--gentlemen--" began Magowan, slowly, "I must admit that our most +elaborate case of circumstantial evidence seems to be knocked into a +cocked hat by the one substantial fact that the 'Thor' still has her +full number of torpedoes on board." + +"Then you don't believe that torpedo came from the 'Thor's' tube, +Captain?" asked Jack Benson. + +"I don't know what I believe," confessed the president of the board, +shaking his head. "It seems to be clearly established that no other +submarine was near enough to have fired a torpedo to cover the range I +have just been informed by Commander Ellis that the recovered torpedo +has been examined, and has proved to have contained the full war charge. +More as a matter of form than anything else we will now order the +remaining submarine boats alongside, and have them searched for a +missing torpedo." + +That search was accordingly made, but not one of the boats had a torpedo +less than the four that it was supposed to carry. + +The object of the lightning cruise having been accomplished, in the +destruction of the half-sunken derelict, the order was given to sail +back to Groton Bay at less speed than had been used on the outward trip. + +As far as evidence went the mystery of the attempt to destroy the +"Hastings" appeared to be as big a mystery as ever. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FORCED DOOR + + +It was nearly dark, on the day following, when the submarine flotilla +made its way up Groton Bay. + +As soon as the craft was at its moorings the "Hastings" was immediately +lighter by the going of one passenger. + +Jacob Farnum went post-haste to the hospital, to inquire after David +Pollard's condition. + +The inventor was in a good deal of pain, yet cheerful. The surgeons +reported that his broken bones were healing slowly. + +The chauffeur, too, was coming along as well as was possible, though he +had been much worse hurt than had the inventor. + +Grant Andrews and his workmen were aboard the "Benson." Half of the +party was now prepared to come aboard the "Hastings" whenever called. + +"Going ashore, Jack?" inquired Eph Somers. + +"Not before Mr. Farnum returns. Nor do I believe any of us had better +go ashore, without his express permission, old fellow," Benson replied. + +Three gentlemen who did go ashore almost immediately after arrival were +the members of the naval board. + +Soon after, an order came for the removal of all torpedoes from the +Rhinds boats. After that the corporal's guard was relieved from duty +aboard the "Thor." + +"And thus ends that chapter of the story, I reckon," grimly ventured +Jack, when he saw the gunboat's cutter convey the corporal's guard away +from the Rhinds submarine. + +Jacob Farnum came back in the early evening. Lieutenant Danvers was +ashore, which left only the regular crew of the "Hastings" on board. +Grant Andrews and his men mounted guard over the two Pollard boats +through the night, which left the captain and crew free to sleep--which +they did with a royal good will. + +No orders came over from the naval board, which fact made it look as +though no new tests would be required immediately. + +The next forenoon, at about ten o'clock, Eph discovered that the Seawold +boat was leaving her moorings. Young Somers watched that lesser rival +start down the bay before he dropped below to report the fact to Benson. + +"What can it mean?" wondered the young captain, going hastily on deck. +"Is the Seawold craft going into some test that we're not asked to +meet?" + +"If so," ventured Hal Hastings, "why isn't one of the gunboats putting +out to sea with her." + +"Here's Lieutenant Danvers coming off shore," announced Somers. "Perhaps +he'll have some news." + +Danvers boarded the "Hastings," but the shore boat waited alongside. + +"I'm not going to stay. Just dropped alongside for a moment," explained +Danvers. + +"I thought maybe you were coming on board so that we could go out on +some test," suggested Captain Jack. + +"There are to be no tests to-day," replied Danvers. + +"Then what's that craft of the Seawold Company doing down the bay by +herself?" Benson inquired. + +"By Jove, she's going to have company, too," declared Eph. "There +goes the Blackson boat out." + +"And, probably, you'll soon see the Griffith and Day craft get under +way," smiled Lieutenant Danvers. + +"What does it mean?" insisted Captain Jack. + +"That's the news," replied the naval officer. + +Jack waited, somewhat open-mouthed. + +"The fact is," continued Lieutenant Danvers, "such tests as we have +already had have been sufficient to eliminate four of the six contestants +for the favor of the Navy Department. This morning Captain Magowan, as +president of the board, received a telegram from the Navy Department to +the effect that four of the submarine types had been outclassed. The +contest now lies between the Rhinds and the Pollard boats." + +"We've beaten the Rhinds boats, too," muttered Jack. + +"Yes; though not by such large margins as to rule the Rhinds boats out +of all consideration," replied Lieutenant Danvers. + +"So the Rhinds boat is to be our rival in future tests--our only rival?" +cried Jack, eagerly. + +"Yes, and--not speaking as an official, Mr. Benson--I very much +incline to the belief that you can go on beating any one of the three +Rhinds submarines with either of the pair that you have here. But the +point is that the national government may prefer to have two types of +boats. It begins to look, as far as indications can point, as though +the Secretary of the Navy has some idea of ordering some Pollard boats +for the Navy, and also some Rhinds boats." + +"I wonder if the Secretary of the Navy has heard anything about the +nasty way in which the Rhinds outfit tried to sink us at sea day before +yesterday?" muttered Captain Jack, half savagely. + +"I imagine some word of the kind has gone on to the Navy Department," +replied Danvers, "I really don't know though." + +"That nasty trick ought to be enough to bar the Rhinds boats," grumbled +Captain Benson. + +"But, you see, my dear fellow, there's just one trouble," answered the +naval officer. "Think whatever you may please about the guilt of Rhinds, +or of Radwin, or some one under them, but where's the proof. On search +the 'Thor' was found to have the full number of torpedoes issued to her. +Now, government departments must be guided by evidence." + +"Humph!" sighed Jack. "As things have turned out, I'd sooner beat the +Rhinds crowd than all the other submarine crowds together." + +"I hope you do," rejoined the Lieutenant. "However, my belief is that +the government will order some of your company's boats, and some of the +Rhinds craft. About the only question, really, is who gets the larger +order--and how much larger." + +Jacob Farnum had come from his stateroom, and had listened to this talk +in silence. + +"How do you feel about it, Mr. Farnum?" asked the naval officer. + +"I shall have to be satisfied with whatever share of the business my +company can secure, of course," replied the shipbuilder. "Yet we know, +and so does everyone, that we have proved the Pollard type of boat to be +better than its nearest rival." + +"Well, success to you all, and the largest measure of it possible!" +wished Lieutenant Danvers, rising and shaking hands warmly all around. +"For my part, I'd like to see you get orders, at once, for fifty +boats, leaving all your rivals out in the cold. And now I must go +on over to the 'Oakland.'" + +Messrs. Rhinds and Radwin were on shore, at the hotel, but they had +received word of the departure of four of the rival boats, and knew the +reason for that departure. + +"This," cried John Rhinds, getting up and pacing the room, while he +smoked fast, "is the stage at which the game gets on my nerves!" + +"Yes," agreed Radwin, though he spoke rather lazily. "It's fine to have +only one rival left in the field, but it's discouraging to know that +we're number two, and that the other fellow holds number one rank. +Rhinds, I wonder if we can really get an order for any of our boats from +the government. I hope that we can, at least, get rid of the three that +we have on hand." + +"Three?" uttered the president of the Rhinds Submarine Company, +scornfully. "I'm going to sell the government at least a dozen!" + +As he spoke, he struck his clenched fists together angrily. + +"How?" asked Radwin. + +"And, on the strength of having the United States' order for a dozen +boats, I'm certain then, of being able to place orders for two or three +dozen more boats with foreign governments." + +"How are you going to place the order for a dozen with the United States +government?" insisted Fred Radwin. + +"How? By the very simple method of getting all the Congressmen and +Senators of our state at work. Fred, I have just about all of the +Congressional delegation from our state pestering the Secretary of the +Navy until we get our order. The Congressmen from our own state will +be glad to see me get the business." + +"Why?" + +"Don't be a simpleton, Radwin! If we have to build a dozen submarines, +we have to hire a lot of workmen, don't we? And I'm always careful to +engage workmen who have votes. Besides, such a volume of business +would turn loose a lot of new capital and wages in our part of the state. +Oh, we can trust our Congressmen, Fred, to get us a big slice of this +submarine business." + +"I hope our miss-fire trick, out at sea day before yesterday, won't hurt +our chances any," whispered Fred Radwin, musingly. "Why did you do +that fool thing?" whispered Rhinds, with a dark look at his secretary. + +"Why did I fail, you mean?" hissed Radwin. "Oh, don't try to throw any +reproaches at me, now. You were willing enough to help me send that +torpedo over at the 'Hastings.'" + +"I can't understand how the torpedo missed," shivered Rhinds. + +"Well, you were at the wheel," retorted Radwin in a low undertone. "You +held the nose of the boat true enough, too, I guess, when I let the +torpedo drive. But that infernal Jack Benson was on the watch, and he +saw the thing coming. Of course he stopped his boat and put the +reverse clutch on just in the nick of time. That young Benson always +appears to be in the nick of time!" + +"So much so," wavered John Rhinds, "that I'm beginning to feel decidedly +superstitious about that young fellow. He'll land us, yet, in something, +and ruin us." + +"No, he won't!" hissed Radwin, sharply. "Benson hasn't landed us yet, +has he? And he's not going to, either! I've one or two rods in pickle +for that forward young scamp, and I'll serve him to a fare-you-well yet! +Rhinds, I may yet find a way that will insure our getting _all_ the +submarine orders!" + +"You're ingenious enough, I know, Fred," admitted the older man, in a +worried voice. "I hope you'll win for us. It will be money enough in +your pocket to satisfy even you, Fred. Still, I'm worried by the way +your plans against Benson have already missed fire." + +Out in the hallway, at that moment, they heard a voice that made them +both start. The voice was not loud, but it was angry, determined, and +carried well. It was the voice of a man sweeping aside the objections +of a hotel servant. + +"Don't tell me they're not in, you idiot!" + +"The servant I paid to be on the lookout is trying to steer away some one +that insists on seeing us," whispered Fred Radwin, listening intently. + +"Neither of the gentlemen are in, I tell you, sir," replied the hotel +servant, doggedly. + +"Get out of the way, fellow! I know the number of their suite of rooms, +and I'm going to it. I don't want to hurt you, fellow, but I'm the +Chief of Police, and I mean to see Mr. Radwin without delay!" + +"The Chief of Police!" gasped Radwin, feeling his knees weaken under him. + +He and Rhinds stared uneasily at each other. + +"You see him first," whispered Fred Radwin. "I've some things in my +pockets that I wouldn't want the chief of police to find. Hold the +police fellow by telling him I'll be right in." + +With that Radwin slipped to the door of a connecting room in the suite. +He passed through, closing the door noiselessly and slipping the key in +the lock. + +An instant later John Rhinds opened his door out into the hallway. + +"Who is it to see us?" he called. + +"It's I, Ward, time Chief of Police," replied the caller, stepping into +the room. "You are Mr.--" + +"Rhinds." + +"I wish to see your Mr. Radwin. I have a message for him." + +"Be seated, Chief," urged the rascal. "Mr. Radwin will be here in a +moment." + +"Where is Radwin now?" demanded the chief. + +"In the next room. He'll be here in a moment." + +"Did he go through that door?" asked Chief Ward. + +"Yes." + +"Then I'll see him at once," replied the official. + +He stepped over and tried the knob of the door. Finding the bolt shot, +Chief Ward promptly put his stalwart shoulder to the door. At the +second bump the door yielded. Ward burst into the next room, then on +to the third. + +"Why did you trick me, Mr. Rhinds?" called the chief, angrily. + +"I? Why--I--" + +Radwin was not to be found. + +The Chief of Police, angry at being baffled in his search for Radwin, +went away declaring that he would have an order issued for the arrest +of Rhinds as an accessory. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +CAPTAIN JACK PULLS A NEW STRING + + +Radwin did not return. + +Though looking outwardly composed, John C. Rhinds passed the next few +hours in a condition of internal unrest. + +Why did Chief Ward want to see Fred Radwin? And why had the latter +tricked himself off out of sight? + +These questions tormented Rhinds the more because he could not even +invent satisfactory answers to them. + +"Is the chief of police acting on anyone else's orders?" quavered the +old man. "Has Fred betrayed himself in anything he has done? Is he +a fugitive from justice? Oh, mercy! What a situation just when I am +trying to put the deals through that shall make the Rhinds Submarine +Company the richest concern of its kind in the world!" + +By the middle of the afternoon Rhinds heard the newsboys calling +something excitedly down in the street. + +"What's that? What's that?" gasped the old man, holding one hand to +his ear. "Sounds like 'Dastardly plot--submarine mystery.' Can it be +anything to injure our chances?" + +As he looked down into the street, from the altitude of the third floor +window, Rhinds saw that, whatever the news, the boys appeared to be +selling papers fast. + +For a few seconds Rhinds wavered. Then he crossed the room to the +telephone. + +"Send me up the latest editions of the newspapers," he 'phoned the +clerk in the office. After that he lighted a big, black cigar--and +waited, mopping the perspiration from his forehead. + +After a few moments there came a knock at the door, and Rhinds opened +it. He noticed that the bell-boy looked at him somewhat queerly as the +papers were handed over. Then, having closed the door and locked it, +John Rhinds sank into a chair, holding up three newspapers, in turn, +and scanning the big, black headlines. + +Yes; here it all was--the whole story in every essential detail. It +told of the mysterious attempt to destroy the "Hastings" at the end of +the lightning cruise. The stories contained Lieutenant Danvers's +statement that the "Thor" had been headed toward the "Hastings" just +a few seconds before the torpedo passed the Pollard boat's bows. +There was an account of the naval party's search of the "Thor," and +the fact that the latter craft was found to have her full number of +torpedoes on board was set forth in all fairness. Oh, yes! The story +was fair enough! No newspapermen could have been fairer than had the +chroniclers of this exciting submarine news. There were no accusations +against Rhinds or his associates--nothing but the fair, unbiased +telling of facts. And yet, in almost any reader's mind the opinion +would be quick to form that only from the "Thor" could the treacherous +torpedo have been fired. + +"Oh, it's--it's awful!" cried John Rhinds, waving the papers over his +head like a madman. + +Jack Benson had played his master stroke in this new game. + +In former times, when the Pollard boats had been all but unknown, +Captain Jack had been quick to grasp the importance of newspaper fame. +As told in the second volume of this series, Jack had once invited +a big party of newspaper folks to Dunhaven, to observe some startling +performances by the Pollard boat. At that time he had given them a +programme so full of excitement that the fame of the Pollard boat had +been flashed over the country, and the Navy Department had found public +opinion clamoring for the United States Navy to own and control a few of +these wonderful craft. + +And now, Jack Benson, wholly and absolutely convinced of the guilt of +Rhinds and Radwin, had gone to the local daily newspaper offices with +his account of what had happened out at sea. + +It was a great stroke. Yet Captain Jack had not undertaken it without +first having secured the permission of Jacob Farnum. After Jack went to +the newspaper offices the Colfax reporters had busied themselves with +interviewing naval officers, including members of the naval board. + +And now the story was out, for the world to read. Yet it was a statement +only of bare, easily proved facts. The newspapers were glad to have such +a startling yarn, and it had been told in such a way that John Rhinds did +not have a single chance in any suit he might bring for libel. + +After the first shock that the discovery caused him, John C. Rhinds +began to suspect Jack's hand in this straight-from-the-shoulder blow. + +"It's that young Benson again!" he raged, silently, rising and stamping +on the offending, yet truth-telling, newspapers. "And this will get +beyond Colfax! The newspapers of the larger cities will begin to hear +of this by evening. To-night this whole yarn will be flashing over the +telegraph wires of the country. Tomorrow morning millions of people +will be reading this awful stuff. Oh, if I could only tear that young +fellow to pieces!" + +John Rhinds gnashed his teeth in his fury. Had he caught a glimpse of +himself in the mirror, just then, the man would have been afraid of his +own reflection. + +Yet, with all his guilty knowledge of what he had encouraged Radwin to +do, it did not occur to Rhinds to lay the blame anywhere except upon the +shoulders of honest, though hard fighting, Captain Jack Benson. + +Presently, John Rhinds cooled down. + +He even became suave and smiling--though under the smile a ghastly +pallor lay on his cheeks. + +This change of outward temper was all because he was forced to become +crafty before others. + +It is a common way with many newspapers to leap on a man and trounce him, +figuratively speaking, and then to send reporters around to see how the +victim has enjoyed the flaying. + +That was what happened to John Rhinds. + +Within half an hour after the newspapers had come to him a message over +the telephone from the hotel office informed the president of the Rhinds +Submarine Company that a reporter was below who wished to interview Mr. +Rhinds. + +"Ah! Er--huh!" choked the wretch, swallowing hard. "Have the young +gentleman shown up, of course. And send up any other reporters who may +ask for me." + +By the time that the first reporter reached the door Rhinds had carefully +removed all traces of the torn newspapers. The old man was calm. He +even smiled slightly, though he affected to be stung to the soul by the +thought that any American could think that he, or any of his party +aboard the "Thor" could have been guilty of such a fearful attempt of +crime. + +"But of course, young man," urged Rhinds, suavely, "you will be able, +through the great power of the press for right, to set all suspicions +at rest. You will, I beg of you, give renewed publicity to the fact that +we were found to have our full number of torpedoes aboard. That one +fact, of course, disposes of any suspicion that we could have thought +of doing such a fearful thing." + +The reporter was young, but he was not lacking in shrewdness. This +boyish-looking journalist had interviewed smooth-talking scoundrels +before. + +"There is one little point I would like to inquire about, Mr. Rhinds," +hinted this reporter, chewing at the end of his pencil. + +"A dozen--a hundred points--anything you want to know!" protested the +man who was being interviewed. + +"Thank you," nodded the reporter, coolly. "Now, it is a well-established +fact that you had your full number of torpedoes aboard, when the naval +officers searched. But have you any place on board the 'Thor' that +would serve as a hiding place for an extra torpedo--an extra torpedo +that might, let us say, have been obtained in any one of a number of +ways?" + +John C. Rhinds began to feel great waves of chill passing up and down +his spine. Hang this smiling, boyish reporter! Rhinds began to feel +that he hated this young man next to Jack Benson! + +"No!" shouted the interviewed one, hoarsely, angrily. "We have no such +hiding place on board. We have no place that could be used for hiding +an extra torpedo." + +The reporter nodded, then continued with a cool smile: + +"Thank you, Mr. Rhinds, for answering so important a question on such a +vitally important point. It is very important to have the suspicion +disposed of that such a hiding place might exist." + +"Very important," confirmed John Rhinds, leaning forward in his most +impressive manner. "And you have my authority for settling the point +for good and all." + +"So that, of course, Mr. Rhinds," pursued the cool, smiling young +reporter, "you will be most glad when I suggest to you the importance +of allowing a commission composed of, say, an editor and two reporters +from the 'Gazette' to go aboard the 'Thor,' search for such a hiding +place, and then be prepared to inform the world that no such hiding +place exists on the 'Thor.'" + +That proposition came like a torpedo itself; it struck, too, below the +water-line of John Rhinds's hard-won composure. + +"Why do you--?" he stammered. Then the wretch forced himself to be +cool again. + +"No, my young friend, I am sorry to say that that would not be +practicable. You see, a submarine craft is full of secrets. Outside of +our own crew none but officers of the Navy can be permitted to go below +the platform deck of any of my boats." + +"Oh, well, then," nodded the reporter, "the 'Gazette' can clamor for a +naval board to be appointed to make the search, and at once. That will +serve the purpose as well, Mr. Rhinds--and it will answer the most +burning question that the public will want to ask." + +Then came the other reporters. Rhinds saw them all, wore before them +all the mask of wounded innocence, showed them all how easily they might +allay all public suspicions. + +Then, when the last reporter had departed, John Rhinds, feeling too weak +to stand, sank down upon a sofa, covering his face with his hands. +Thus, for some time he lay, hardly giving signs of life. His fright +was great, indeed. + +In striking this blow young Captain Jack Benson had struck far harder +than he had even dreamed. + +When Rhinds began to realize things once more he missed Fred +Radwin--Radwin, the seeming fugitive, who had run away from his foul +leader at the first sound of a police voice. + +Still, it was possible that Radwin was not far away. Possible, also, +that in this fact lay time greatest danger that had ever menaced Jack +Benson. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +JACK MEETS A HUMAN FACT, FACE TO FACE + + +There was no thought of dinner for John Rhinds that evening. + +After the newspaper men had gone the artful schemer spent a long time in +drafting two or three telegrams that he felt it necessary to send to +members of his state's Congressional delegation at Washington. + +In the telegrams that were finally sent, the president of the Rhinds +Submarine Company referred to himself as apparently the victim of a +very clever but diabolical plot to ruin his company. He asked the +members of Congress for his state to see to it that he was given a +full opportunity for justice. + +"Justice? Ugh!" muttered the old man, as he scanned one of his +telegrams. "Well--er--not if it means punishment!" + +Hardly had he sent away these telegrams, and even as he was giving +thought to sending down an order to have dinner served in his rooms, +Rhinds received a telegram from the editor of a New York daily, asking +for his version of the torpedo mystery. + +From the wording of the telegram, it was plain that the story had gotten +as far as New York, and that the editor regarded it as the big, +sensational news story of the hour. + +Groaning, Rhinds bent over to begin work on this new telegram that was +demanded of him. It proved to be a hard message to write. Even while +he worked over the difficult problem, a second telegram arrived, this +from the editor of a Philadelphia morning paper. Then came two from +Boston. + +"Good heavens! I can't keep up this pace," groaned John Rhinds. "These +editors won't even give me time for sleep." + +Sudden blackness came over his eyes as he sat back, trying to think it +all out. + +"I can't answer any of these telegrams," he muttered, tearing up the +offending messages. "Oh, why did Radwin have to take wings at the +very time when I need him most! Fred Radwin, with his cool nerve, his +steely eyes and his glib, lying tongue, would have been ready with +answers for all these questions. But I can't do it. I'll need a +strait-jacket, if these telegrams continue to arrive!" + +Yet several more telegrams did come in, from newspapers in various +Eastern states. Rhinds read them, groaned and tore up the messages. + +Then he smoked strong cigars, one after another, but that only made his +nerves worse. When he went to bed, late that night, he slept some, yet +it was mainly to dream hideous dreams. + +In the early morning Rhinds sent for morning newspapers. These contained +what he had said to local reporters, but his version, with the +newspapers' comments added, only made matters worse. "That infernal +'Gazette,'" in especial, printed, in bold type, the account of his +refusal to let a committee of newspapermen examine his boat for a +secret hiding place large enough to hold an extra torpedo. + +That forenoon shore boats did a thriving business in carrying people out +on trips around the Pollard and Rhinds submarines. Trains brought in +folks from other towns, all anxious for a glimpse of the submarine craft. + +"This will drive me wild, yet," groaned Mr. Rhinds. "It's an outrageous +shame." + +Still, there was little realization, on his part, that he deserved all +this, and more. + +* * * * * * * * * * + +"Jack, my boy," muttered Jacob Farnum, looking up from a batch of +morning newspapers in the cabin of the "Hastings," "You've been the +means of stirring up a bigger hurricane than ever raged at sea." + +"Are you sorry?" asked the young submarine captain, coolly. + +"Well, considering my private opinion of Mr. John C. Rhinds, and my +belief as to what he did--or tried to do--to us, I can't say I'm +deeply grieved," returned the shipbuilder. + +Then time shipbuilder looked around him, at all three of the submarine +boys, as he went on: + +"Lads, we've been cramped up on this boat long enough, so I'm going to +take you ashore this evening. But remember--not a word to reporters, +or to anyone else. If any one of you opens his mouth on this subject, +I shall consider that young man no longer a friend of mine." + +All this while Chief Ward, of the Colfax police department, was busily +engaged in seeking tidings of the missing Fred Radwin. But Radwin, +after entering that adjoining room, appeared to have been swallowed up. + +Jack had heard, from the chief of police, of the disappearance of Radwin. +This was one feature of the story that the newspapers had as yet failed +to discover. However, Ward believed that Radwin was now hundreds of +miles away, and still traveling. So, when the Pollard submarine party +came ashore that evening, none of them gave much thought to Radwin. + +Farnum led his young friends, as heretofore, to the Somerset House. + +"We might possibly meet Rhinds in the lobby, or in the dining room," +said the shipbuilder, "but I don't deem it likely. Rhinds is undoubtedly +keeping hid within his own walls upstairs." + +This guess proved to be a good one. Farnum and his friends dined at the +Somerset without being offended by a sight of the face of their rival +in business. + +A special waiter was stationed to head off reporters or other curious +people who might attempt to interview the submarine diners. So the meal +proceeded in peace, though it was rather late when the diners finished. + +"Whew! Nearly nine o'clock," muttered Farnum, glancing up at a big +clock on a near-by wall. "And I haven't been out to the hospital, +to-day, to see how Dave is coming along." + +"Would it do to telephone, and ask the hospital people to let Mr. +Pollard know you had inquired?" suggested Hal. + +"Don't just like that idea," replied Mr. Farnum, shaking his head. "It +doesn't sound just like using Dave Pollard right. I'll tell you what, +however. I've been the only one to go out to the hospital, so far. +Dave always asks after the rest of you. Jack, suppose you take a hack +and make the trip out. If they won't let you see Dave at this hour, +then inquire how he is getting along, and leave your card to be sent in +to him. But, if you can see Dave Pollard, he'll be delighted to have +a look at your face. There's a cab standing out in front of the hotel, +and it won't take you but a few minutes to get out to the hospital." + +"Where'll I find you?" asked Jack, rising at once. + +"We'll wait in the lobby of the hotel until you get back. Use the cab +both ways." + +There was, as Mr. Farnum had said, a cab outside the hotel. That cab, +in fact, had been hanging about since just before dark. + +Most of the time it stood drawn up at the curb on the opposite side of +the street. + +Three or four times, during the early evening, different persons had +tried to engage the use of this cab. + +Yet, to each prospective customer, the driver had shaken his head, +uttering the one word: + +"Engaged." + +So the cab still waited, the driver occasionally moving to a somewhat +new position, though always keeping well in sight of the hotel entrance. + +As Captain Jack Benson stepped out through the broad doorway, however, +on his errand of friendship, the driver, throwing away a half-smoked +cigar, suddenly whipped up his horse, driving close to the entrance. + +"Cab, sir" hailed the driver. "To any part of the city." + +"You know where the hospital is?" inquired Jack Benson. + +"Oh, yes." + +"How long will it take to drive me there?" + +"Ten or twelve minutes." + +"All right. And I shall want you to wait there, a little while, and +then bring me back. How much will that be?" + +"Dollar and a half, sir." + +"Go ahead," directed Jack, springing inside and pulling the door shut. + +The only time Benson had been to the hospital before was on the morning +of the accident. + +At that time he had not noticed the road very closely. Now, at night, +all looked so different to him that he had no idea whether or not he was +being driven in the right direction. He left all that to the driver, as +most people do when employing cabs. + +"I'd like just a little peep-in at Rhinds tonight," thought Jack, as he +settled back against the comfortable upholstery. "I reckon he knows, +by this time, something of the way of the transgressor." + +If the young submarine captain noticed anything at all of the way the +driver was taking him, he saw only that the vehicle was rolling through +a quiet, rather shabby, ill-lighted portion of the city. + +Thus the cab went, down street after street, the horses moving only at +the slowest trot. + +"What this cab needs is one of our gasoline engines," thought Jack, +lazily. Then, suddenly: + +"No, sir! By gracious, no! That would make an automobile out of this +old tub on wheels, and, until Mr. Pollard gets whole again, anyway, +we've had enough of automobiles. One of our crowd in hospital, at a +time, is plenty!" + +Then there came a moment in which the cab stopped so suddenly that the +young skipper was all but thrown from his seat. + +"Gracious!" uttered the submarine boy. "Who's torpedoing us?" + +But, at that instant, Jack Benson received a more genuine shock. + +For the left-hand door of the vehicle was wrenched suddenly open. In +the doorway appeared the white, ugly, desperate face of Fred Radwin! + +Without a word, Radwin threw himself forward, making a leap into the +carriage. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +A CORNERED SUBMARINE CAPTAIN + + +"You--get--out!" + +Quick as thought Jack Benson raised his left foot, planting it, as +vigorously as his sitting position allowed, against the ribs of Fred +Radwin. + +That worthy, one foot on the sill, and bent in the act of entering fell +back, going in a heap to the sidewalk. + +Benson fairly hurled himself through the open door in his need of +reaching the sidewalk in time. + +He stood, now waiting for a second or so. + +Then Fred Radwin jumped up, prepared to grapple with this young foeman. + +But Jack was ready for that. He had ready a handy sailor jab--a +short-arm blow with the fist that sent Radwin once more to the sidewalk. + +Then, as scientific boxing rules were not called for in an encounter of +this kind, Jack followed up his advantages with two severe kicks. + +Down from the seat leaped the driver, heavy whip in hand. + +"Oh, you're in this, are you?" panted Jack, seeing that the driver was +headed straight for him. + +Down low ducked the submarine boy; then came up straight at close +quarters. Benson's sudden grapple deprived the driver of a chance to +use the butt of his whip in the manner the fellow had intended. + +Yet the driver was a powerful fellow, his strength making him about a +match for the greater agility of the bronzed young skipper. + +Jack managed to land a blow or two against his big assailant, though +without doing much harm. + +Yet the submarine boy was undismayed and confident, until, out of the +corner of one eye, he saw Radwin rising and advancing cautiously to +close in. + +Young Benson's opportunity came at just that instant. Smack! He +landed his right fist in the driver's face, almost dazing him. With +the left fist Jack struck himself free. + +But Radwin was just upon him as the boy turned. + +"No, you don't!" mocked Captain Jack, ducking down, kangaroo-fashion. +"Day-day!" + +That low crouch and the following spring had carried the submarine boy +just under Fred Radwin's outstretched right arm. + +And now, Jack Benson, being past both of his assailants, took refuge in +discreet flight, in fact, he ran down the street with about every pound +of human steam turned on. + +"Come on!" snarled Radwin, setting the sprinting pace. "We've got to +catch that rascally boy, and mighty quick, too!" + +This block or two of the street appeared to be deserted. There was no +telling, however, how soon the submarine boy might run into two or +three real men who would take his side in any scrimmage that was due. + +Though Radwin had the first start after Jack, and was running well, the +driver, a long-legged fellow with splendid "wind" soon passed his leader. + +Jack realized that he was in danger of being caught, and tried to put on +a greater burst of speed. Yet the driver came closer and closer. + +Whizz-zz! + +The driver had aimed his heavy whip, lance-fashion, and butt-end first, +and launched it after the fugitive. + +Had not Jack turned the instant before, to glance backward, the whip +would have struck him in the back of the head. But Benson saw it coming, +and threw himself forward, his head went down. + +The whip, therefore, flew just over his head, striking the sidewalk +ahead of him. + +At that moment Jack Benson tripped. He did not mean to do it. He +simply fell and landed on his knees, his head low. + +On came the sprinting driver. It was too late to stop or turn. Over +Jack Benson plunged the fellow, then landed in a heap on the sidewalk. + +Jack was up like a flash. He heard a yell from the driver, but Benson's +gaze was upon the whip. + +At a bound the submarine boy possessed himself of this weapon. He got +it, just in time, too, to wheel and face Fred Radwin, threatening that +fellow with the heavy butt-end of the driver's recent weapon. + +"Get up behind the boy, you fool!" hissed Radwin. + +"Sure, I can't," moaned the fellow, rubbing himself, real anguish +sounding in his voice. "My neck's broke!" + +"Come on yourself, Radwin!" mocked Jack, backing against the wall of a +house so that he could face either assailant at need. + +"Drop that whip, and I will!" hissed Fred Radwin, stealthily manoeuvering +about the boy, yet held back by a wholesome awe of that butt-end of the +whip. + +"No; I like this whip too well," chuckled young Benson. "You can't +have it unless you take it from me. Want to try?" + +"Come on, and get up, you dolt!" growled Radwin to the driver. "Do you +think we have all night to settle with this boy?" + +"I can't get up, I tell you. I'm no good," moaned the driver. "I don't +know what I did to myself when I went down so hard." + +"Hurry up!" insisted Radwin. "A crowd may come along at any moment." + +"Let 'em," moaned the driver. "I can't stop it. I'll apologize." + +At that very moment there came the sound of a shout further down the +street. Other voices answered. + +"There, you dolt!" cried Radwin, angrily. "Now, you've wasted our last +chance. Here comes a mob!" + +Backing off, Radwin grabbed up his useless comrade, forcing the driver +to his feet. + +Seeing his enemy so occupied, Jack Benson edged off, holding the whip +so that he could use it. + +From down the street came the sound of flying feet. Then, just as +suddenly the speed lessened. + +"I'll wait until I get help, and I'll grab this pair," muttered Captain +Jack. "The police chief will be delighted at having a good, close look +at Fred Radwin!" + +At that moment loud yells and coarse cries broke from the eight or ten +young men down the street. Then fist-blows sounded. + +"Mine's a Chinaman's luck," grunted Jack Benson, disgustedly. "Only a +gang of drunken hoodlums down there. They'd stand in with anything +that is against the police. No use depending on such human cattle." + +Jack, in fact, grasped the significance of the new riot a little before +Fred Radwin did. The submarine boy, therefore, wheeled and ran swiftly +toward the fighting hoodlums, though wholly intent on getting past +them. + +Radwin, believing that the young skipper was racing for help, dragged +his driver-companion roughly, swiftly along, finally pushing him inside +the hack. Then Radwin leaped to the box, gathered up the reins, and +was away like a flash. + +The young submarine skipper, from what he knew of hoodlum street crowds, +hurried by on the other side. Two blocks further along Benson +encountered a tardy policeman. Knowing that it was now too late to hope +to catch Fred Radwin, Jack contented himself with inquiring the way back +to the Somerset House, where he arrived, after a long walk, still +carrying the whip as his trophy of the late encounter. + +"You'll have to telephone the hospital, after all, I'm afraid," muttered +the young skipper, when he met Mr. Farnum and the others in the lobby. + +"What happened?" demanded Farnum, eyeing the whip curiously. + +"As soon as I can get through with telephoning the chief of police, I'll +come back and tell you." + +Chief Ward responded in person. He examined the whip, then declared: + +"I know the fellow this whip belongs to--Claridy, 'the fox,' as his +admiring friends call him. He's a bad character. See; here is a fox's +head engraved on the whip-stock. I'll do my best to find Claridy, and, +in that way, I may find the fellow, Radwin. But you were wise, Benson, +in not trying to enlist help from that hoodlum gang. Our hoodlums are +as bad and lawless as are to be found anywhere in the United States." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A COWARD'S LAST DITCH + + +In the morning the Somerset House was favored by two rather distinguished +guests. + +One was Rear Admiral Townsley, the other Congressman Simms. The two +had come down together from Washington on the night train. + +While the admiral communicated at once with Captain Magowan, Congressman +Simms sent his card up to John C. Rhinds. The latter, all a-quiver, +now, and showing a haggard face in which smiles fought for a chance, +received his visitor. + +"Well, Rhinds," was the Congressman's greeting, "the country is all +stirred up over this submarine incident out at sea. So is the Navy +Department, which is bound to respond to public opinion in such a case." + +"I'm glad you've come," replied Mr. Rhinds, eagerly. "I look to you to +save me from a most unpleasant, most unmerited charge." + +"No charge has been made against you--yet," replied the Congressman. + +"I should have said a suspicion," replied Rhinds, tremulously. + +"That suspicion seems to be pretty general," answered the member of +Congress. "Have you anything to smoke here?" + +Rhinds, with an almost childish eagerness, brought forth a box of cigars, +adding: + +"I'll ring and order breakfast served for you here, while we talk." + +"Thank you, no," responded the Congressman. "I've got to move fast +to-day, for I can't spend much time here. I suppose you don't know, +yet, that Admiral Townsley is here--sent by the Secretary of the Navy +to investigate and report on this matter." + +"You'll see him--you'll make him understand, won't you?" demanded +Rhinds, eagerly. + +"You can't make Townsley understand anything but facts," replied Mr. +Simms, dryly. "I know the man. He's a hard-headed truth-seeker. You +see, Rhinds, when I received your telegram, I hurried over to the Navy +Department to say what I could for you. The Secretary told me that of +course he didn't want you injured by any unjust suspicions." + +"Of course not," quivered Rhinds. + +"At the same time the Secretary made it plain to me that public sentiment +demands that the whole case be brought past the suspicion stage. He +advised me to come down here with Townsley, and see, for myself, just +what I ought to believe." + +"You'll act as my friend, won't you?" begged Rhinds, tremulously. +"You'll show Townsley the absurdity of this whole business. Simms, I +look to your friendship, for you are my friend, aren't you?" + +"Possibly," nodded the other, dryly. "But I'm also a Congressman, +responsible to my district, my state and the whole country. Now, +Rhinds, the whole thing is just here. I'm going to look into this +matter, and I'm going to sift it all I can. If I find you're innocent +beyond a question--then--well, you know I'm a pretty good fighter." + +"Yes, yes; you'll fight my enemies to a standstill," cried Rhinds, +piteously. + +"But, if I find the facts against you, then my hands are tied." + +"If--if it's a question of money--" stammered the submarine man. + +"Money?" demanded the Congressman, crisply. "What for?" + +"Why--er--er--for expenses." + +"I can pay my own expenses, Rhinds, in a matter that affects the good +name of my district. Now, give me your side of this affair." + +For an hour the two men remained talking. Rhinds fought for himself +as hard as he could, for he was beginning to suspect that a mere matter +of politics would not move the Congressman much in this case. + +"Now, I'll leave you for a while, Rhinds, and I'll move fast," promised +the Congressman, rising. "But I advise you to stay right here. I may +want to see you at any moment." + +Mr. Simms must have moved rapidly, for, two hours later that morning, +after having seen many people, including the admiral, the Congressman +sent a message upstairs urging Rhinds to come down at once. + +As he stepped out from the elevator, a strange pallor on his face, +John Rhinds beheld the Congressman standing with four men one of whom +the old man knew for Ensign Pike, the naval officer who had been +stationed aboard the 'Thor.' Another was Lieutenant Danvers. + +Congressman Simms quickly presented Rhinds to the other two, one of +whom was Rear Admiral Townsley, and the other Lieutenant Jasper, the +Admiral's aide. + +"Now, Mr. Rhinds," pursued the Congressman, "the admiral has decided +that the first thing to do is to go aboard the 'Thor,' and see whether +any hiding place exists in which you might have stored a fifth torpedo." + +"But how could I get such a fifth torpedo?" faltered the old man. +"The Navy issues them." + +"They may be bought in the market, too, by one who knows how," replied +Rear Admiral Townsley, coolly. "You consent to our going aboard your +boat, of course, Mr. Rhinds?" + +Had there been any reasonable way of preventing it, Rhinds would not +have agreed, but he saw that he must comply with the request. + +Admiral Townsley raised a hand in signal. Out of the background came +Jacob Farnum and his three submarine boys. + +"These people can't come aboard my boat!" protested Rhinds. + +"They must, if we do," retorted the admiral, crisply. "These are the +human beings who were placed in deadly peril by the torpedo that has yet +to be accounted for." + +Rhinds no longer objected. All his force, all his will appeared to +have departed. He moved along, now, like a puppet. + +Down at the water-front a naval launch was in waiting. In this the +entire party was taken out to the "Thor." Captain Driggs received the +callers on the platform deck, and Admiral Townsley stated the object +of the visit. + +"Why, Admiral," replied Captain Driggs, honestly, "I have no knowledge +that there was an extra torpedo aboard. Yet, of course, there's a +place where such a thing might have been hidden." + +"Take us to it," requested the Admiral. + +Captain Driggs led the visitors below. There, in the cabin floor, he +pointed to a well-concealed trapdoor. It opened upon a very considerable +space between cabin floor and keel. + +"This space certainly _would_ accommodate a torpedo," declared Admiral +Townsley. "Mr. Rhinds, if we could prove that you had a torpedo in this +space the other day, there would be an almost complete case, wouldn't +there?" + +"But I didn't have," cried Rhinds, with cunning insistence. + +"Mr. Driggs," pursued the admiral, "we shall want you as a witness at +the investigation on board the 'Oakland.' My aide will hand you a +subpoena. This, I believe, gentlemen, is all we have to do here." + +Looking years older, yet holding up his head in a certain kind of +bravado, John Rhinds returned to shore with the party. + +No sooner had Rhinds entered the hotel than a bell-boy moved over, +drawing him aside and saying something in a low tone. + +"I'll wager that talk would interest us, if we could hear it," remarked +Jack Benson, sarcastically, to his friends. + +Rhinds, however, turned and hurried off. In five minutes he was back +in the lobby. Eagerly he glanced about for the Farnum party, and +located it. Then he moved over to where Farnum and his submarine boys +sat. + +"Farnum," breathed the old man, anxiously, "I've a favor to ask of you." + +"That's strange," replied the shipbuilder, coolly. + +"I won't term it a favor, then," went on the other, restlessly. "I will +put it another way. As a simple act of justice will you meet two people +whom I want you to hear?" + +"I've heard a good deal, lately," answered Farnum, reluctantly. + +"I ask this as a matter of justice. Won't you and young Benson step +down the corridor with me?" + +"How long will this interview take?" demanded Farnum. + +"Only a very short time." + +"Well, lead on, then." + +Farnum and Captain Jack stepped down a corridor in the wake of their +enemy. + +Rhinds led them into the ladies' parlor. Farnum and Jack caught sight +of two anxious faced women--one, a refined woman of middle age, the +other a beautiful girl of sixteen. + +"Mr. Farnum, and Mr. Benson, my dear," announced John Rhinds, in oily +tones. "Gentlemen, my wife, and my daughter, Helen. Both have something +to say to you, gentlemen. Be seated, won't you?" + +With that Rhinds slipped away. Like many another cur, in the hour when +he finds himself driven to the wall, John Rhinds had sent for his wife +and daughter. He proposed to escape from the consequences of his +rascally acts by hiding behind the skirts of pure and good women who +had the strange fortune to have their lives linked with his. + +"What is all this that I have heard, sir?" asked Mrs. Rhinds, tears +filling her eyes fast, as she turned to regard the Dunhaven shipbuilder. + +It was the hardest hour Jacob Farnum had ever spent, and the same was +true for Jack Benson. + +This wife and daughter had the most absolute faith in the goodness of +John Rhinds. They pleaded gently, eloquently, for these two enemies +to have faith in their husband and father. + +"You surely don't believe that Mr. Rhinds was at the bottom of any such +scoundrelly plot as the papers are talking about?" asked Mrs. Rhinds, +tearfully, at last. + +"Madame," replied Farnum, in the gentlest tone he knew how to use, "I'll +admit I don't like to believe it." + +"And you'll come out in a public interview, saying you're convinced +that the whole story is a monstrous lie, won't you?" pleaded the wife. + +Jacob Farnum choked. + +"I--I can't promise that, Mrs. Rhinds. You'll never believe how hard +it is for me to refuse you." + +"Then you do believe my husband guilty?" demanded Mrs. Rhinds, in a +voice full of agony. + +"Oh, I wish I could say what you want me to, Mrs. Rhinds, but--well, all +I can do is to remain silent." + +"Can't I say something--something?" asked Helen Rhinds, appealingly. +Her moist eyes turned first on Mr. Farnum, then on Captain Jack. + +"Ladies," confessed the Dunhaven shipbuilder, "you've already said +enough, as I looked at your faces, to make me almost feel that I am one +of the worst men alive." + +"Oh, no, no, no!" protested the girl. "You are going to prove yourself +the most generous." + +Then, turning, the girl caught at one of Benson's hands appealingly. + +"You urge him!" she begged. + +"When the chief has spoken I must be silent," Jack answered, clearly, +though in a low voice. + +"What can you say to us, Mr. Farnum? What will you say?" cried Mrs. +Rhinds, desperately. + +"Madame," replied the Dunhaven shipbuilder, "all I can say is this: I +will not, of myself make any effort to bring your husband before a +court. I will make no effort to have the investigation carried any +further. That is all I can say. Jack, if you have anything to say to +these ladies that will soften my words, then, in the name of mercy, +say it." + +"Ladies," spoke Captain Jack Benson, looking mother and daughter full +in the eye, in turn, "you have heard the extent of Mr. Farnum's promise. +He is a man who lives by the rules of justice. You are the only two +in the world who could have wrung from him such a promise as you have +secured." + +With that Farnum and his young captain succeeded in taking their +leave--making their escape, as they felt, from a most trying +situation. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CONCLUSION + + +Within two hours John C. Rhinds had his head up once more. + +He felt as though the battle had been already won. There was nothing +to fear from Farnum pushing the situation that had been created against +the owner of the "Thor," for Farnum had promised. It was strange that +John Rhinds, who had no regard for the moral value of his own given +word, felt certain that Jacob Farnum would not break a promise. + +Rhinds even telephoned for the reporters, and, when they came, gave +out an interview in which he stated that Mr. Farnum was satisfied that +no blame over the torpedo incident could be attached to the owner of +the "Thor." Farnum, when questioned by the same reporters, declared +that he had nothing to say. + +That night Rhinds was almost cheerful. He dined in the public dining +room of the hotel, with his wife and daughter, and both appeared to be +wholly proud of the man. + +One thing, however, worried Rhinds a good deal. Congressman Simms did +not come near him again. Later in the evening Rhinds sought the +Congressman, though wholly in vain. + +Rhinds breakfasted with his family, the next morning, in their rooms. +So he was still behind his private doors when a summons reached him to +go to the wharf and take the launch to the "Oakland." + +"What can it mean, John?" demanded his wife. + +"If they want you as a witness before the investigation, you'll be able +to clear yourself quickly." predicted Helen. + +"I'll soon find out why I'm wanted," declared Rhinds, jauntily. + +In fact, he was almost cheerful as he boarded the launch at the wharf. +Rhinds was at least self-possessed when he was shown into a cabin where +Captain Magowan was seated at a desk. + +"Oh, good morning, Mr. Rhinds," was the greeting of the president of the +naval board, as he rose. "My business will take but a very few moments. +I have received definite orders from the Navy Department by wire this +morning. Here is a copy of the telegram." + +Rhinds took the message, and read: + +_"Inform John C. Rhinds that the Department will give no further +consideration, this year, to the purchase of any boats from the Rhinds +Submarine Company."_ + +"What does this mean!" demanded Rhinds, paling, then flushing with +anger. + +"Just what it says," replied Captain Magowan, coolly. + +"There has been some underhanded work here!" began the old man, +wrathfully. + +"None in the Navy Department, at all events," replied Magowan, coolly. +"I will not detain you longer, Mr. Rhinds. Good morning." + +Captain Magowan, bowing, opened the door. A marine sentry stood on post +just outside. There was no use in making a row. John C. Rhinds stepped +out like one in a daze, and remained so until he reached the wharf and +stepped ashore. + +To the railway station went Rhinds. He was ruined. The order from +Washington meant that all his capital had been expended on boats that +could not be sold. There might be a chance with foreign governments, +but creditors would step in and seize the Rhinds shipyards before a good +trade could be made abroad. + +At the station Rhinds counted the money he had about him. At a bank in +another city was a thousand dollars or so more. Rhinds took the train +and was borne away. His wife and daughter. The former had a small +private fortune of her own; wife and daughter would not starve. So the +coward ran away. + +That same forenoon Farnum and his submarine boys were summoned to police +headquarters. There they were confronted with a rather pretty though +almost poorly dressed girl. + +"Is this the young woman whom you rescued at a street corner, and whom +you were escorting when attacked by a gang of rowdies?" asked Chief +Ward. + +"I don't know," smiled Eph. "The young woman I was walking with had on +a veil." + +"Oh, that's all right," laughed the police chief. "This young woman is +Katharine Pitney. She has told me the whole story, and I am satisfied +that she has told me everything honestly. Miss Pitney is not a prisoner. +She has made a little mistake in becoming engaged to the wrong sort of +fellow--the 'Tom' from whom you tried to defend her. Now, it seems +that 'Tom'--which isn't his name, had persuaded her to help him in +playing a joke, as he explained it to her. So Miss Pitney was foolish +enough to agree. She is wholly sorry, now she knows that it was a +crime, not a joke in which she helped. And 'Tom' has received his +walking papers so far as Miss Pitney is concerned." + +"But I beg you'll forgive me, Mr. Somers," spoke up the girl, anxiously. +"I honestly believed it was a joke that I was helping in. As soon as +Mr. Ward found me, I told him the whole truth about the matter." + +"You certainly did, Miss Pitney," confirmed the chief. + +"Why, I haven't anything to forgive," laughed Eph. "It was a joke, +the way it turned out." + +Chief Ward escorted Miss Pitney from the room, then returned to +explain: + +"That's a wholly good girl, but her fancy was too easily won by the +fellow, 'Tom.' She knows better, now, and will have to know a whole +lot more about the next man she allows to capture her affections. Now, +I have another pair to show you. They're in cells. Come downstairs, +please." + +Through a corridor underneath the chief led his visitors, halting, +at last, before a barred door of iron. + +"Look through, and see who it is," smiled the police chief. + +"Why, that's Walter C. Hodges, who sent us off on a pleasure trip in +that doctored automobile!" exclaimed Jack. + +"Yes; you're right," sighed the prisoner. "I've been cornered, and +I've admitted it." + +"But that fellow's daughter?" asked Jack, as the chief led them away. + +"Hodges hasn't any daughter," replied Chief Ward. "We found the young +woman, but we let her go. She is an idle, vain young woman. Hodges +told her the same old story--a joke he was playing, and persuaded the +young woman to go along and pretend to be his daughter. In payment he +bought her the fine clothes she was wearing when you saw her. And now, +here's some one you may like to see here!" + +For a moment or two not a word was uttered as the submarine people found +themselves gazing between bars at--Fred Radwin. + +Radwin did not look depressed, but, on the contrary, jaunty and defiant. + +"He's the one I'm best pleased of all to have," chuckled Chief Ward. +"The four ruffians who attacked you boys, and held two of you in that +deserted house before Benson led our party to the place, have confessed +that they were acting for Radwin. And Hodges has confessed, too, that +Radwin employed him, and that, between them, they put the doctored axle +in the auto." + +While Chief Ward was speaking Fred Radwin turned pale. + +"You didn't know all this until just this moment, did you, Radwin?" +smiled the chief. + +"Oh, you needn't think you can down me too easily," snarled the prisoner. +"I have money to fight with." + +"I know," nodded Ward. "You have a little over twenty thousand dollars, +Radwin. I also know where the money is. An attorney acting for the +chauffeur that was hurt so badly in the automobile smash-up has already +started in to attach that money in a suit for damages by the chauffeur." + +* * * * * * * * * * + +It is time to turn from too disagreeable a picture. The four roughs +first hired by Fred Radwin were sent to the penitentiary for a year +each. + +Hodges, in consideration of furnishing useful state's evidence, was +sentenced to the penitentiary for two years and a half for his share +in the automobile plot. + +Radwin, for conspiracy in setting on the roughs, was sentenced to three +years in the penitentiary; for his part in the automobile affair five +years more were added. It will be a long time, yet, ere Radwin will +breathe the air as a free man. + +John C. Rhinds vanished completely. True, one returned traveler reported +having seen Rhinds at Nice, performing paltry services for American +tourists in return for paltry "tips." + +Mrs. Rhinds and her daughter, having decided to make the best of matters, +are now living quietly and happily in a western town. They believe +John C. to be dead. + +The mystery of that torpedo has never been officially cleared. In naval +circles, however, there is no doubt whatever felt as to the guilt of +Rhinds and Radwin; but it is also felt that both have been suitably +punished for their dastardly conduct. The three Rhinds torpedo boats +were seized, under court orders, and sold to satisfy the claims of +creditors of the Rhinds Company. + +The chauffeur recovered twenty thousand dollars damages through the +attachment of Radwin's funds and the subsequent civil suit. Besides +which, after a few months, the chauffeur had practically recovered from +his painful injuries. + +David Pollard was out of hospital in three weeks. In twice that length +of time he felt as well as ever. + +Later on, the Pollard Submarine Boat Company received from the United +States Government orders for eighteen torpedo boats in all, the "Benson" +and "Hastings" included. One of the new ones, under this order, was +named the "Somers." The Navy has accepted all three names, and the +boats are now known in the service by these names. Later on the fortunes +of the three submarine boys were materially increased by these sales. + +One of the first pleasures experienced by David Pollard, after his +discharge from hospital, was that of joining the rest of the Farnum +party in dining with the members of the naval board and the gunboat's +officers in the messroom of the "Oakland." + +In the course of a little speech after dinner Captain Magowan referred +in glowing terms to the splendid work of the submarine boys on that +Lightning Cruise, and their success in being first to reach the derelict +and torpedo it. + +The president of the board was followed by Lieutenant Danvers, who, +among other things said: + +"The performances of Captain Benson and of his brother officers on +the Pollard boats have, indeed, been wonderful. 'Wonderful' may not +be quite the word, but, at this moment, I am so carried away with +enthusiasm that I cannot cruise about for mere words." (Laughter and +applause.) "The other day, a naval comrade, in talking with me about +the performances of Jack Benson and his friends, told me be considered +them to be wizards of the deep." (More applause.) + +"But I took exception to my comrade's well meant remarks. A wizard, +as we understand one nowadays, is a mere pretender, a sleight-of-hand +man--a jack at cards. I would offer a more fitting title--and in +all sincerity--when I allude to Jack Benson, Hal Hastings and Eph +Somers as the Young Kings of the Deep!" (Tremendous applause.) + +* * * * * * * * * * + +Here we will leave the submarine boys briefly, but we shall come upon +them again in their next succeeding adventures--adventures that make +a fitting climax, in the next volume, which will be entitled: +"_The Submarine Boys for the Flag; Or, Deeding Their Lives to Uncle +Sam_." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUBMARINE BOYS' LIGHTNING +CRUISE*** + + +******* This file should be named 17058.txt or 17058.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/7/0/5/17058 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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