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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Submarine Boys for the Flag, 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 for the Flag
+       Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam
+
+
+Author: Victor G. Durham
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 15, 2005  [eBook #17059]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Jim Ludwig
+
+
+
+Note: This is book six of eight of the Submarine Boys Series.
+
+
+
+
+THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG
+
+Deeding Their Lives to Uncle Sam
+
+by
+
+VICTOR G. DURHAM
+
+1910
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTERS
+    I. "Do You Speak German?"
+   II. "French Spoken Here"
+  III. The Man Who Marked Charts
+   IV. Jack's Queer Lot of Loot
+    V. Sighting the Enemy
+   VI. Flank Movement and Rear Attack
+  VII. A Lesson in Security and Information
+ VIII. Eph Feels Like Thirty Tacks
+   IX. Jack Plays with a Volcano
+    X. "Mr. Grey" Makes New Trouble
+   XI. Facing the Secretary of the Navy
+  XII. Navy Officers for an Hour or a Day
+ XIII. Commander of a U.S. Gunboat!
+  XIV. The Bow Gun Booms and Eph Puts Off
+   XV. "The Right Boat and the Right Crew!"
+  XVI. The Duel Through the Door
+ XVII. The Last Hour of Command
+XVIII. Eph Bets an Anchor Against a Fish-Hook
+  XIX. Jack's Caller at the United Service Club
+   XX. The Girl in the Car
+  XXI. Daisy Huston Decides for the Flag
+ XXII. The Part of Abercrombie R.N.
+XXIII. "Foreign Trade" Becomes Brisk
+ XXIV. Their Lives Deeded to the Flag
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"DO YOU SPEAK GERMAN?"
+
+
+"Hey, there, Mister!" called out Jabez Holt, from one of the two office
+windows in the little hotel at Dunhaven.
+
+As there was only one other man in the office, that other man guessed that
+he might be the one addressed.
+
+With a slight German accent the stranger, who was well-dressed, and
+looked like a prosperous as well as an educated man, turned and demanded:
+
+"You are calling me?"
+
+"I reckon," nodded Jabez.
+
+"Then my name is Herr Professor--"
+
+"Hair professor?" repeated Jabez Holt, a bit of astonishment showing in
+his wrinkled old face.  "Hair professor?  Barber, eh?  Why, I thought you
+was a traveler.  But hurry up over here--do you hear me?"
+
+"My good man," began the German, stiffly, drawing himself up to his full
+six-foot-one, "it is not often I am affronted by being addressed so--"
+
+"There!  He'll be outer sight in another minute, while you are arguin'
+about your dignity!" muttered Holt.  "And that's the feller you said you
+wanted to see--Jack Benson."
+
+"Benson?" cried the German, forgetting his outraged dignity and springing
+forward.  "Benson?"
+
+"That's him--almost up to the corner," nodded Landlord Jabez Holt.
+
+"Run out and bring him back with you," directed Herr Professor Radberg.
+"Be quick!"
+
+"Waal, I guess you're spryer'n I be," returned old Jabez, with a shrewd
+look at his guest.  "Besides, it's you that wants the boy."
+
+Running back and snatching up his hat, Professor Radberg made for the
+street without further argument.
+
+Moving along hastily, the German soon came in sight of young Captain Jack
+Benson, of the Pollard Submarine Torpedo Boat Company.
+
+"Ach, there!  Herr Benson!" shouted the Professor.
+
+Hearing the hail, Jack Benson turned, then halted.
+
+"You are Herr Benson, are you not?" demanded Professor Radberg, as soon
+as he got close enough.
+
+"Benson is my name," nodded Jack, pleasantly.
+
+"Then come back to the hotel with me."
+
+"You are a foreigner, aren't you?" asked Jack, surveying the stranger
+coolly.
+
+"I am German," replied Radberg, in a tone of surprise.
+
+"I thought so," nodded the boy.  "That is, I didn't know from what
+country you came.  But, in this country, when we ask a favor of a
+stranger, we usually say 'please.'"
+
+"I am Herr Professor--"
+
+"Oh, barbers are just as polite as other folks," Jack assured him, his
+laughing eyes resting on the somewhat bewildered-looking face of the
+German.
+
+"Then please, Herr Benson, come back to the hotel with me."
+
+"Yes; if it's really necessary.  But why do you want to go to the
+hotel?"
+
+"Because, Herr Benson, when we are there, I shall have much of importance
+to say to you."
+
+"Important to me, or to you?" asked Jack, thoughtfully.
+
+He had no intention of answering a much older man disrespectfully.  But
+there was about Herr Radberg the air of a man who expects his greatness
+to be recognized at a glance, and who demands obedience from common
+people as a right.  This sort of thing didn't fit well with the
+American boy.
+
+"Oh, it is important to you, and very much so," urged the Professor,
+somewhat more anxiously.  "Besides," added the German, with a now
+really engaging smile, "I have met your demand, Herr Benson, and have
+said 'please.'"
+
+"Then I suppose I'll have to meet your demand," nodded Jack,
+good-humoredly.  "Lead the way, sir."
+
+"Ach!  You may walk at my side," permitted the German.
+
+It all seemed a bit strange, but Captain Jack Benson had been through
+more strange experiences than had most Americans of twice or thrice his
+age.  Besides, as he walked beside Herr Professor Radberg Jack imagined
+that he had guessed at least an inkling of the other's business.  The
+German had announced himself as a professor; probably, therefore, he was
+a scientist.  Being a scientist, the Professor had very likely invented,
+or nearly invented something intended for use in connection with
+submarine torpedo boats, and wanted to interest the concern by which the
+young submarine skipper was employed.  Though this guess was a
+reasonable one, it soon turned out to be the wrong one.  The Professor's
+real reason for seeking this interview was one that was bound to take
+the submarine boy almost off his feet.
+
+Readers of the preceding volumes in this series need no introduction to
+Captain Jack Benson, nor to his chums, Hal Hastings and Eph Somers.
+Such readers recall, as told in "_The Submarine Boys on Duty_," how
+Jack and Hal drifted into Dunhaven just at the right moment to fight for
+an opportunity to work themselves into the submarine boat building
+business.  How the boys helped build the first of the now famous Pollard
+submarines, and afterwards learned how to man her, was all told, together
+with all their strange adventures in their new life.
+
+In the "_The Submarine Boys' Trial Trip_" was related how Jack Benson
+solved the problem of leaving a submarine boat when it lay on the
+ocean's bottom, and also the trick of entering that submerged boat
+again, after diving from the surface of the water.  The attempt of
+shrewd business men to secure control of the new submarine boat company
+was also described, together with the manner in which the submarine
+boys outwitted them.  Through a successful trial trip, and Captain
+Jack's ingenious ways of arousing public interest, the government was
+forced to buy the "Pollard," as the first of the submarines was named.
+
+In "_The Submarine Boys and the Middies_" was narrated how the submarine
+boys secured the prize detail of going to the Naval Academy at Annapolis
+as temporary instructors in submarine boating.  Many startling adventures,
+and some humorous ones, were related in that volume.
+
+Then in "_The Submarine Boys and the Spies_" was shown how the young men
+successfully foiled the efforts of spies of foreign governments to learn
+the secrets of the Pollard craft.
+
+In "The Submarine Boys' Lightning Cruise" the adventures of these clever,
+enterprising boys were carried further.  In this book, was told how the
+boys were trained in the handling of the actual torpedo of, warfare.  The
+Pollard boats, "Benson" and "Hastings" were entered in official
+government tests in which the submarine craft of several other makes
+competed.  The desperate lengths to which the nearest rival of the
+Pollards went in order to win were told with startling accuracy.  The
+result of all these tests was that the Pollard company received from
+the Navy Department an order for eighteen submarine torpedo boats, the
+"Benson" and the "Hastings" being accepted as the first two boats on
+that order.
+
+By the time the present narrative opens it was near the first of May.
+Over at the shipyard, where facilities had been greatly increased, two
+of the submarines had lately been finished, and four more were under way
+in long construction sheds.  Work on the government's order was being
+rushed as fast as could be done while keeping up the Pollard standards,
+of high-class work.
+
+Of late Jack and his young friends, though their pay went on, had little
+work to do.  Whenever a new boat was completed it was the task of the
+submarine boys to take her out to sea and put her through all manner of
+tests in order to determine her fitness.  But there were days and days
+when the submarine boys had naught to do but enjoy themselves as their
+fancy dictated.
+
+"Shall we sit down here?" asked Jack, as he and the tall German entered
+the hotel office.
+
+Jabez Holt stood behind the desk, bent over the register, on which the
+Professor's name had been the only new one in a week.  The old landlord
+pretended to be busy, but he was covertly watching and listening.
+
+"Sit here?" repeated Professor Radberg.  "Ach, no!  Come along with me."
+
+There was something rather disagreeably commanding in the German's
+invitation, but Jack merely smiled quietly as he followed in the
+stranger's wake.  Up the stairs they went.  The Professor unlocked a
+door, admitting himself and his guest to the outer of a suite of two
+rooms.  Once they were inside Radberg locked the door behind them.
+
+"Come to the other room, Herr Benson," directed the Professor.  The door
+of this inner room the German also locked, remarking:
+
+"Now, if the man, Holt, chooses to follow and listen, he can hear
+nothing."
+
+"All this sounds mighty mysterious," laughed Jack Benson, good-humoredly.
+
+However, the submarine boy went and stood by a chair near the window and
+then waited until he saw that the stranger was about to seat himself.
+
+"Now," asked Jack, stretching his legs, "what's the business about?  I
+haven't a whole lot of time to-day."
+
+"Listen, and you shall hear, as soon as I am ready," came, stiffly, from
+the stranger.  "You are a boy, and I am Herr Professor--"
+
+"Oh, you told me all about being a hair professor before," smiled Jack.
+"Now, see here.  Whether you're really a barber, or whether you're just
+amusing yourself with me, we want to have one thing understood.  I came
+here, sir, as a matter of courtesy to you, and you will have to treat
+me with just as much courtesy.  Otherwise, I shall wish you
+good-morning."
+
+This was said with a flash of the eye which warned Radberg that, in his
+rather overbearing way, he was going too for.
+
+"Oh, my dear young friend," he replied, persuasively, "you don't
+understand.  In Germany I am--well, perhaps what you would call a
+rather distinguished man.  At least, my neighbors are good enough to
+say so.  And, in Germany, when a herr professor talks, others listen
+respectfully."
+
+"Just the same way with the hair professors in this country," chuckled
+Jack.  "When an American barber gets wound up and started, all a fellow
+can do is to listen.  It's no use trying to run away from a barber
+anywhere, I guess.  He has you strapped down to the chair."
+
+"Barber?" repeated Professor Radberg, in disgust.  "I don't understand
+you."
+
+"Oh, it isn't necessary," laughed Jack.  "It's a sort of Yankee joke.
+And I beg your pardon, Professor, if I am wasting your time.  Now, go
+ahead, please, and tell me why you invited me here."
+
+There was something of salt water breeziness and crispness about Jack's
+speech that caused the German's brow to cloud for an instant.  Then,
+after a visible effort to compose himself, Radberg leaned forward
+to ask:
+
+"Do you speak German?"
+
+"No, sir." Jack shook his head.
+
+"Ach, that is too bad!" muttered the German, in a voice suggesting
+severe disapproval of one who hadn't mastered his own native tongue.
+"However, you will soon learn."
+
+"Yes; if there's a big enough prize goes with it," agreed Jack.
+
+"Prize?" repeated Professor Radberg.  "You will say so!"
+
+Then, leaning forward once more, and speaking in his most impressive
+voice, Herr Professor Radberg continued:
+
+"Herr Benson, we are going to take you into the German Navy!"
+
+The Professor now leaned back to watch the effect of his words.
+
+"Are you going to do it when I'm awake?" asked Jack, curiously.
+
+"Nein!  I do not understand you."
+
+"Are you going to take me in by force, or wait until you catch me
+asleep?" questioned Captain Jack Benson.
+
+"Ach!  Do not be silly, boy!"
+
+"I might say the same to you, Professor," replied Jack Benson,
+composedly, "but we'll let it pass.  How are you going to get me into
+the German Navy, and what are you going to do with me after you get me
+there?"
+
+"How?" cried Professor Radberg.  "Why we are going to pay you a very
+handsome sum of money, and we are going to give you a most honorable
+position in our imperial service.  And--"
+
+Here Professor Radberg leaned forward once more, lowering his voice
+considerably.
+
+"There are three of you boys, all experts at the Pollard works.  Well,
+we are going to take all three of you into the German navy, and we will
+do something very handsome for you all."
+
+"The other fellows will be delighted when I tell 'em what's coming their
+way," smiled Captain Jack.
+
+"Ach!  So?  Of course."
+
+"Now, what do you propose to do with us in your navy?" Jack went on.
+"Are you going to make officers of us?"
+
+"Officers?" repeated Herr Professor Radberg, slowly.  "Well, no, Herr
+Benson.  We could not exactly do that.  Our officers are, as you will
+understand, very--what is your English word?--aristocratic.  They
+could not be quite persuaded to take American commoners as their brother
+officers.  That you would not expect, of course."
+
+"Certainly not," young Benson agreed.  If there was a slight tinge of
+sarcasm in his it was lost on the German, whose brow cleared as he went
+on, heavily:
+
+"No, no, my young friend; not officers.  But you shall all three have
+very honorable positions, and handsome sums of money to pay you for
+entering our service.  We in Germany know the rank which you young men
+have won as submarine experts, and we shall not be niggardly, for we
+have determined to have you in our service."
+
+"I hope you'll pardon me," proposed young Benson.  "There is just one
+point that has been overlooked.  You tell me that you are authorized
+to come to Dunhaven and kidnap my friends and myself.  But, really,
+how do I know that you have such authority from your own side of the
+water?"
+
+Radberg looked a bit puzzled, for a moment.  Then, as he seemed to
+begin to comprehend, he replied, heavily:
+
+"Herr Benson, I have already told you that I am Herr Professor--"
+
+"Now, don't hang out the striped pole again, please," urged Jack, his
+face as sober as that of a judge.  "Come right down to the points of
+the compass.  How am I to know that you really do represent the
+German government?"
+
+"Ach!  I comprehend," nodded the German.  "Of course you will understand
+that, on an errand of this kind, I do not travel with too many papers.
+But I shall take you and your two companions on to Washington to-morrow,
+I think--"
+
+"To-morrow ought to do as well as any time," replied Jack, ironically.
+
+"Yes; I think it will be to-morrow," continued the German.  "I shall
+take you to our German Embassy, and one of our officials there will
+prove to you that I have been acting with authority."
+
+"That'll be right fine of him," agreed Jack, placidly.
+
+"Ach!  It is settled, then," replied the German, all but dismissing the
+matter with a wave of his hand.  "Yet you must bring your two comrades
+here.  They must understand just what is wanted of them.  And now, Herr
+Benson, do you wish to understand what is to be paid to you to transfer
+your services to our German flag?"
+
+"Why, yes; that will be mighty important--if we go under the German
+flag."
+
+"If you go?" repeated the Professor.  "Why, that is all settled!"
+
+"Then I must have missed something, by not watching you closely enough,"
+murmured Jack.  "I shall have to sit up straighter and keep my eyes
+wider open.  When was it all settled, sir?"
+
+"Why, did you not tell me--"
+
+"Haven't had a blessed chance to tell you anything," replied Jack,
+looking astonished.  "You've been doing all the telling."
+
+"But you'll go with me, of course, to Washington?" uttered Radberg,
+looking much taken aback.
+
+"I doubt it," muttered young Benson, shaking his head.  "In fact, sir,
+I may as well tell you that it's waste of our time to carry this line
+of talk any further."
+
+"Ach! You are cunning," smiled Professor Radberg, no longer nonplussed.
+"That is as it should be, too, for you are a clever young man, Herr
+Benson."
+
+"A thousand thanks," murmured Captain Jack.
+
+"But, instead of talk," pursued the German, "you wish to see some money.
+Quite right!  I should, were I in your place, Herr Benson.  Well,
+then--ach!  Look at this."
+
+Thrusting a fat hand down deep in a trousers pocket, Herr Professor
+Radberg brought up into view a big roll of money.  He held this up so
+that the submarine boy could feast his eyes on it.  Jack looked,
+composedly.
+
+"Did you ever see anything like this--you, who are such a young boy?"
+smiled the German, teasingly.
+
+"I--I don't know, really," responded Jack, thoughtfully, thrusting a
+hand down into his own trousers pocket.  Young Benson brought up into
+the light a very comfortable looking handful of banknotes, rolled and
+surrounded by a broad elastic band.  "Let's measure the two, Professor,
+and see how they compare."
+
+"Ach!" muttered the German, regarding Jack's money with some displeasure.
+"Where did you get all that?"
+
+"Oh, now, Professor!" cried the young submarine captain, reproachfully.
+"I didn't ask you where you got yours!"
+
+"Ach!  This is all so much foolishness!" cried the German Professor,
+returning his money to his pocket.
+
+"That's what I think, too," agreed Jack, following suit.  "It's what our
+English cousins call 'bad form,' to go to comparing piles of money."
+
+"Now, sit down, Herr Benson, and I will tell you what a very handsome
+sum of money, and what excellent wages, the German government will pay
+you to enter our imperial naval service."
+
+"How much money is there in Germany?" interrupted the submarine boy,
+thoughtfully.
+
+"How much, in all Germany?" demanded the Professor.  "Nein!  How should
+I know?"
+
+"You expect me, of course, to turn my back on this country for good, to
+tell you Germans whatever I may know about submarine secrets, to drill
+with your navy, and be prepared to fight in your navy if war comes?"
+
+"Ach, yes!  of course," replied Radberg.  "Now, we are beginning to
+understand one another."
+
+"Professor," interrupted Captain Jack Benson, "we've had enough of
+joking."
+
+"Joking?  I assure you--"
+
+"Professor," once more broke in the submarine boy, "_I wouldn't sell out
+my country's flag for all the money you ever saw!_"
+
+For a few moments the Professor's face was a study in consternation.
+Then he broke forth, angrily:
+
+"Ach!  You are a fool!"
+
+"I guess so," nodded Jack, without resentment.  "That's just the kind
+of fools we Americans are generally."
+
+Herr Radberg was a good enough reader of human faces to realize that,
+at all events, there was no use in continuing the conversation at
+present.
+
+"Very good," he growled.  "You can go.  I shall see your friends,
+instead."
+
+"When you get through with 'em you'll think they're idiots," grinned
+Captain Jack Benson.
+
+Herr Radberg wasn't a fool.  Neither was he a rascal, expert in offering
+bribes.  Brought up within the wall's of a German university, he would
+have been willing to lay down his life instantly for the good of the
+Fatherland.  Yet he couldn't understand that men of other nations could
+be just as devoted to their own countries.  From Herr Professor
+Radberg's point of view Germany was the only country in the world that
+was fitted to inspire a real and deep sense of patriotism.
+
+"No harm done, Professor," said Jack, moving toward the door, and
+turning the key to unlock it.  "I'm sorry you had all the trouble and
+expense of coming to Dunhaven on a useless errand.  Good-bye!"
+
+"Ach!  You may go, but you will come back," scowled the other.  "If
+not, your comrades will, I hope, prove to be young men of better sense
+and judgment."
+
+"Oh, they'll listen to you," smiled Jack.  "Good-bye!"
+
+"I shall have two of you, anyway," were Radberg's last words before the
+door of the outer room closed and Jack's footsteps sounded in the
+corridor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+"FRENCH SPOKEN HERE"
+
+
+"Well, what do you think of that?"
+
+It was Eph Somers who put the question, and the time was some fifteen
+minutes later.
+
+Captain Jack had met his two comrades up on the main street of the
+village.  He had told them, with a good deal of amusement, of his late
+talk with the German.
+
+Hal Hastings didn't say a word, but his eyes twinkled.
+
+"I wouldn't have minded," laughed Jack, "but it was the Professor's
+cock-sureness that I was to be Germany's oyster."
+
+"Is he an old man?" asked Hal.
+
+"Not very," Jack answered.  "Perhaps not old enough to know better.
+Anyway, if I were going to a foreign government, Germany would be about
+the last country.  Germany is our rival in building a large navy.  About
+every other month the experts in Germany sit down to figure whether they
+are anything ahead of us in the tonnage of warships, and, if so, whether
+there is any danger of our catching up with them.  Now, unless the
+Germans have a notion that they may need, to fight us one of these
+days--"
+
+"Oh, I don't believe anything of that sort," broke in Hal, shaking his
+head.  "I don't believe any country in the world is aching to pick a
+quarrel with us."
+
+"Not while the United States pocket-book is such a fat one, and so well
+built for paying war expenses," grinned Eph.  Then his look became more
+solemn, as he added:
+
+"But we don't want ever to get into a naval condition where it will be
+easy for some other country to snatch that fat pocket-book out of our
+hands."
+
+"Let's go along, fellows.  Drowning and confusion to all possible foes
+afloat," proposed Hal, the one who could never see "war" on the horizon.
+"After a winter on hot sodas, it'll be a relief to know that the
+druggist put in icecream soda to-day."
+
+So the three boys turned and made their way to the drugstore.  While
+they were exploring with spoons the bottoms of their glasses, the
+street door opened.  Herr Professor Radberg looked in, then came in,
+beaming condescendingly on the young men.
+
+"Ach!  You young men are just the ones I wish to see," he exclaimed,
+resting one hand on Eph's shoulder, the other on Hal's.
+
+"Lots of folks will pay for that privilege," declared Eph, solemnly.
+
+"Yes?  Well, I will pay, too--you shall see.  I shall look for you at
+the hotel, in just one hour.  One hour--remember."
+
+"Have you a telescope?" inquired Eph, calmly.
+
+"A telescope.  Eh?" inquired the German.  "What for?"
+
+"You might need it in looking for us," Eph replied.
+
+"Then, in one hour, I shall see you--at the hotel!"
+
+"You'll be lucky, if you do," grinned Eph.
+
+"Eh?  I do not know that I understand," responded Herr Professor Radberg,
+slowly.
+
+"If you're figuring on seeing us," Eph went on, gravely, "I'm afraid
+you're in for bad news."
+
+"Bad news?  Ach!  What do you mean, young man?"
+
+"Just what I said," replied Eph.
+
+Professor Radberg looked so puzzled that Hal Hastings broke in, quietly:
+
+"Professor, unless I'm much in error, you want to see us about a
+proposition that we enter the German naval service."
+
+"Hush!  Not so loud," warned Radberg, looking suspiciously around.
+
+"There's nothing we have to keep quiet about," Hal went on.  "You have
+already spoken to our captain, Jack Benson, about this matter."
+
+"Ach!  Yes."
+
+"And Jack has refused."
+
+"Your captain is a fool!" cried the German.
+
+"Then we serve a fool, because he's our captain," retorted Hal, quietly,
+though there was a flash in his eyes.
+
+"I shall look for you two at the hotel in one hour," declared the German,
+impressively.
+
+"My friend, Mr. Somers, has already told you that you'll be using your
+eyesight to poor advantage, then," Hal answered.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, I mean, Professor, that you can't possibly persuade us to go to
+Germany and tell your people anything that we know about the Pollard
+submarine boats, or any other type."
+
+"But you shall be well paid!"
+
+"Professor, what would be your price for selling out your country to the
+United States?" asked Hal, gazing fixedly at the German.
+
+"You insult me!" cried the German, his face growing red.  "I am a
+patriot."
+
+"Yet, you insult us by thinking that we would sell our country," went
+on Hal, coolly.
+
+"Are you two going to be as big fools as your captain?" demanded Herr
+Professor Radberg, almost incredulously.
+
+"Bigger!" promised Eph, with a grin.
+
+"Ach!  Well, we shall talk this all over when you come to the hotel in
+an hour," replied the German.  He turned and left the store.
+
+"Now, I don't doubt," mocked Hal, "he has gone away firm in the belief
+that we'll keep his appointment."
+
+"He'll wake up after a while," laughed Eph Somers.
+
+After indulging in a second ice cream soda the submarine boys started
+down the street toward the Farnum shipyard where the Pollard boats were
+built.
+
+As they passed a street corner they heard a cautious:
+
+"Hss--sst!"
+
+"Now, who threw that our way?" demanded the irrepressible Eph, turning
+swiftly.  Then he added, in a tone so low that only his comrades could
+hear:
+
+"Say, fellows, I'll bet that cost something!"
+
+"That" was, a rather undersized little man, of perhaps thirty.  Dark of
+hair, and sparkling of eye, the stranger's rather pallid face was partly
+covered, in front, by a short goatee, of the French "imperial" sort,
+and a moustache whose points were waxed out in fierce military
+fashion.
+
+It was the stranger's apparel that had attracted Eph's notice
+particularly.  The stranger was arrayed almost exquisite fashion; his
+clothes were of finest texture and latest Parisian type.  His little,
+pointed shoes were almost as dainty as a girl's.  Though the day was
+warm the stranger was gloved, and handled a cane in the head of which a
+handsome amethyst shone.
+
+"I wonder how that got through the custom house?" was Eph Somers's next
+undertoned question.
+
+"Ah, good morning, gentlemen," greeted the stranger, coming toward them,
+all smiles and bows.  "Av I have not med ze mistake, zen I am address ze
+torpedo boys."
+
+"Right-o," drawled Eph.  "Regular human torpedoes, as touchy as
+gun-cotton.  Why, I am due to explode this moment!"
+
+Though the stranger looked puzzled at first, his face rapidly broke into
+a cordial smile.
+
+"Oh, ah!  I understand.  You mek what is call ze American joke, eh?  You
+have little fun wiz me."
+
+The Frenchman, for that he unmistakably was, laughed in the utmost good
+humor.  The boys found themselves much inclined to like this stranger.
+
+"Now, young gentlemen," continued the Frenchman, "I am ze Chevalier
+Gari d'Ouray."
+
+"Glad to meet you, Chev," volunteered Eph, with suspicious amiability,
+holding out his hand, which the Frenchman took daintily.  "I'm a
+'shoveleer' myself, and this awkward, gawky looking boy with me is our
+engineer."
+
+Eph had a tight grip on the stranger's hand, by this time, and was
+surely making it interesting for the Frenchman.  The Chevalier d'Ouray
+was doing his best to retain his politeness, but Somers's hearty grip
+hurt the foreigner's soft little hand.
+
+"What can we do for you, Chev?" demanded Eph, holding to the Frenchman's
+hand so persistently that Hastings gave his friend a sharp nudge in
+the back.
+
+"Let us go somewhere," urged the Frenchman.  "Some place were we can sit
+down and have ze talk about important matters.  I have ze message for
+you zat I cannot deliver upon ze street."
+
+"Now, don't say, please," begged Eph, "that you have heard we are wanted
+in the French Navy."
+
+The Chevalier d'Ouray looked intensely astonished.
+
+"Parbleu!  You are one marvel!" gasped the Frenchman.  "You read my most
+secret thought.  But yes!  You have made ze one right guess.  However,
+I cannot more say upon ze street.  Let us go somewhere."
+
+"All right," nodded Eph.  "You go along, now, and we'll be along in an
+hour."
+
+"Wiz pleasure," nodded the chevalier, eagerly.  "But we're shall I go?"
+
+"Anywhere you like," suggested Eph, cordially.
+
+"But, zen, how will you know w'ere I am to be found?"
+
+"Oh, we'll take a chance on that," proposed Eph, carelessly.
+
+"But, unless I am able to say, now, w'ere I shall be--" the Frenchman
+started to argue.
+
+"We'll guess the meeting place as well as we did your errand," proposed
+Eph.
+
+"Ten thousan' thanks!" cried, the chevalier.  "Yet, for fear we mek ze
+one mistek, suppose I say--"
+
+Eph Somers had struck such a streak of "guying" nonsense that Jack
+Benson felt called upon to interpose, for he and Hal both liked the
+twinkling eyes and good-humored face of this dandified little Frenchman.
+
+"Pardon me, sir," Jack accordingly broke in, "but, if we happened to
+guess your errand, it was because we have just gotten away from the
+agent of another government."
+
+"How?  Is zat posseeble?" cried the Chevalier d'Ouray, a disappointed
+look coming into his face.
+
+"Yes; it's true," nodded Jack.
+
+"But you did not come to any terms wiz him?"
+
+"Oh, no!"
+
+"Ah, zen, ze coast is steel clear," cried the little Frenchman,
+delightedly.  "So, as to w'ere we can meet and mek ze one talk--"
+
+"We can get that all over with, right here," Jack replied.  "We can make
+you the same answer that we gave the other man.  We are Americans, and
+would never think of serving any other flag, even in peace time.
+Chevalier, I can save your time by telling you that any arrangement to
+engage our services away from the United States would be utterly
+hopeless."
+
+"But ze money--" began the Frenchman, protestingly.
+
+"There isn't money enough across the Atlantic to hire us," Jack answered,
+bluntly.
+
+"And ze honneur--"
+
+"Honor?  What would that word afterwards mean to Americans, Chevalier,
+after they had left their own country to serve another?"
+
+The Chevalier d'Ouray began to look as though he realized he had a harder
+task before him than he had expected.
+
+"So you see, sir," Jack went on, "it will not be in the least worth your
+while to try to tempt us.  Come what will or may, we are under the
+American flag for life.  You yourself, Chevalier, wouldn't leave the
+French flag to serve this country, Great Britain or Germany."
+
+"No; but zat is deeferent, for I, monsieur, am French."
+
+"And we are American," Jack responded.
+
+"I will leave you, now, zen, gentlemen," replied the Frenchman, in a
+tone of disappointment.  "But I shall not go away before to-morrow.  If
+you change ze mind--or weesh to hear w'at I have to mek ze offer--"
+
+"Thank you," nodded Jack.  "But don't waste any more time on us,
+Chevalier.  And now--good-bye!"
+
+The Chevalier d'Ouray shook hands with them all most gallantly.  Eph felt
+somewhat ashamed of his late nonsense, and, to prove it, hit the
+Chevalier d'Ouray a friendly slap on one shoulder that set the Frenchman
+to coughing.
+
+"Say," muttered Jack, as the three now hurried along the street, "I begin
+to wish I had a good umbrella."
+
+"Humph!  You'd look great with one," retorted Hal.  "You, who have stood
+on the platform deck of a submarine for hours, steering unconcernedly,
+when the skies were trying to drown you."
+
+"But I feel," remonstrated Jack, "that it's soon going to rain foreign
+agents.  I'd like to get in out of the international wet."
+
+"Oh, we won't see any more of these fellows," smiled Hal.
+
+"Now, there's just where I believe you're wrong, messmate," Jack
+contended.  "These foreign governments hire detectives to watch each
+other.  When we hear from one, we're likely to hear from the whole lot
+at once.  Look around you, Eph.  Do you see a Jap anywhere?"
+
+"Not a solitary jiu-jitsu fiend," responded Eph, after halting and
+staring both ways in turn along the street.
+
+"Well, Japan is about due," laughed Benson.  "And now, let's get in
+through the gate of the shipyard.  If any more of these foreign agents
+show up--well, there are two boats in the harbor that are in commission.
+We'll find an excuse to put to sea in one of them."
+
+"Just the youngsters I was going out to try to find," hailed Grant
+Andrews, foreman of the submarine construction work, as he hurried
+across the yard.  "Mr. Farnum told me to get out and find you.  He'd
+have sent some one else, but I guess the business is rather on the
+quiet."
+
+"Is he in his office?" queried Jack.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Thank you; we'll go right in, then."
+
+"Now I wonder what country it is whose agent has gotten hold of Mr.
+Farnum?" asked Eph, plaintively.
+
+"Nonsense!" mocked Jack.
+
+"That's what we try to tell 'em all," mocked Eph.  "But the Germans are
+the hardest."
+
+All three of the submarine boys were laughing so heartily, as they
+entered the shipbuilder's private office that Jacob Farnum, a youngish
+looking man to be at the head of so large a manufacturing plant, glanced
+up quickly.
+
+"What's the joke, boys?" he asked. "I haven't had a laugh since I
+pounded my thumbnail with a sledge-hammer."
+
+Captain Jack Benson quickly detailed the meetings with Radberg and
+d'Ouray.
+
+"The Frenchman didn't look a bit like a 'shovelee' either," muttered
+Eph.  "If anything, that looked more in the German's line."
+
+"Well, you'll have a chance to get rid of nonsense, now, for a while,"
+went on Mr. Farnum, after having enjoyed a few laughs with the boys.
+"I've some serious business in hand for you, and the time has come."
+
+That was like the shipbuilder.  Whatever he was planning, at any time,
+he kept strictly to himself until the time came to put the plan into
+operation.
+
+"There's quite an important little job for you up at Craven's Bay,"
+continued Mr. Farnum.  "You know, there are important fortifications
+there, because the Navy people expect, in wartime, to use Craven's
+Bay as a possibly important naval station and shelter for vessels that
+have to put in.  Now, for some time the Army engineer officers have been
+perfecting a system of submarine mines for the bay.  The engineers have
+a problem on hand as to whether an enemy's submarine boats could sneak
+into the bay and blow up the submarine mines before the Army woke up
+to the danger."
+
+"There's a chance that _that_ could be done," nodded Jack, musingly.
+
+"Jest so," nodded Mr. Farnum.  "So I want you to go up in one of the
+boats.  To-morrow the engineer officers at that station will test it out
+with you whether a submarine can destroy the mines, or the mines could
+be made to destroy the submarine boats."
+
+"Then the Army engineer officers will use dummy submarine mines, I hope,"
+broke in Eph.
+
+"Oh, of course," nodded Mr. Farnum.  "Now, the trip to Craven's Bay is
+only an eight-hour sail at a good gait, so you won't really need to
+start until after dark to-night."
+
+"I believe I'd rather start now, though, and go at less speed," suggested
+Jack, thoughtfully.
+
+"That's just as you please, of course," nodded the shipbuilder.
+
+"It will take us out on the water, for one thing," Captain Jack
+continued, "and we've been growing stale on shore, of late."  Then he
+added, whimsically: "Besides, if the agents of any more foreign
+governments show up, they won't find us here."
+
+"And there's a Jap just about due now," grimaced Eph.
+
+"Take Williamson with you, for use in the engine room," advised Mr.
+Farnum.  "That will allow you to take the boat through with two watches
+above and below.  Which boat will you take?"
+
+"The 'Spitfire,' unless you'd rather have us take the other one," young
+Benson replied.
+
+"Take the 'Spitfire,' by all means," nodded the owner.
+
+Twenty minutes later, Williamson having been found, the crew was all
+ready for the start for Craven's Bay.
+
+Eph and Williamson cast off from moorings while Hal Hastings, down below
+at the gasoline motors, started the twin propellers as soon as Jack
+Benson, at the deck wheel, signaled for speed ahead.
+
+Right after the start, Williamson, a grown man and machinist, dropped
+below.  Eph Somers stood beside the young submarine captain.
+
+For some minutes both boys gazed out over the waters.  Then Eph remarked:
+
+"Well, we got away without being overhauled by a Jap or a Russian,
+didn't we?"
+
+"I don't know," smiled Jack, unsuspectingly.  "See that launch over to
+port?  Hanged if she doesn't seem to be putting toward us."
+
+"She does," admitted Eph, solemnly.  "Oh, well, with a few more turns of
+the screw we can easily get away from that launch."
+
+For some moments Captain Jack paid no especial heed to the launch
+bearing down upon them on the port side.  He noted only, at the distance,
+that the launch contained two men.  Presently, however, as the launch
+came nearer, Captain Benson made a discovery.
+
+"Eph," he gasped, "look over there!  Are my eyes going back on me, or is
+that a Japanese in the bow of the launch?"
+
+"Japanese?" gasped Eph Somers, in turn.  "Nothing but!"
+
+Eph made a swift dive for the box that contained the signal flags used
+in the international marine signaling code.  Moving swiftly, young
+Somers selected the two flags representing "N" and "D."  These he strung
+to the halliard of the short signal mast forward.  Nor was he ahead of
+time, for by this time the launch had described part of a circle, and
+was coming up alongside.
+
+In the bow of the launch stood the Japanese, smiling, and holding a
+megaphone in his hand.
+
+"Submarine, a-ho-o-o-oy!" came the hail.  "Will you slow down?  I have
+something to say to you."
+
+Up flew the signal flags, fluttering in the breeze.  Then Eph snatched
+up a megaphone, holding the smaller end to his mouth.
+
+"Launch ahoy!" he shouted back.  "Just tell your folks that you saw
+our signal!"
+
+The Japanese read the fluttering flags, then called back:
+
+"N.D.?  What does that mean?"
+
+Hoarsely Eph Somers bellowed back:
+
+"_Nothing doing!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MAN WHO MARKED CHARTS
+
+
+It was a little before midnight when the "Spitfire" came to anchor in
+Craven's Bay, after having been piloted to anchorage by a quartermaster's
+tug that put off from Fort Craven on signal.
+
+"Fine place, if your searchlight is keen enough," yawned Eph, gazing off
+into the darkness.
+
+Eph and Williamson had slept through the evening, after supper, and were
+now to take the night watch tricks, the machinist's deck watch
+beginning at once and lasting until four in the morning.
+
+About an hour after daylight, Eph Somers deserted the deck, except for
+occasional intervals.  After a while the odor of coffee and steak was in
+the air.  Then, snatching up a bugle, Somers sounded the reveille
+tumultuously through the small cabin of the submarine torpedo boat.
+
+Not long did the other members of the crew take to turn out and dress.
+They came out into the cabin to find Eph trotting between table and
+galley, putting things on the table.
+
+"This seems like old times," chuckled Williamson, as he seated himself
+with the boys.
+
+"Yes; because you don't have to cook," grimaced Eph.  "Wait until after
+breakfast, when you have to clear away and wash dishes!"
+
+"Even so, I have the best of it," laughed the machinist, good-humoredly.
+"I have something in my stomach to work on."
+
+"I always do get the tough end of any job, don't I?" grumbled Eph,
+resignedly, then buried his troubles under a plateful of steak and
+fried potatoes.
+
+"You hoisted the signal, 'N.D.', yesterday afternoon," laughed Captain
+Jack, laying down his coffee cup.  "If you don't watch out, Eph, I'll
+hoist the 'N.G.' flag over this table."
+
+"Breakfast no good?" demanded Eph, looking much offended.
+
+"No; 'N.G.' will stand for 'no grouch.'"
+
+Somers joined heartily in the laugh that followed.
+
+Just as they were finishing a really good meal, for which every
+breakfaster had a royal, salt-water appetite, a steamer's whistle was
+heard, not far off to port.
+
+"I'll bet that's the Army tug!" muttered Captain Jack, rising hastily
+from the table.  "Tell you what, fellows, we've got to begin to have
+something like Navy discipline aboard this craft.  In that case, we'd
+have had breakfast over an hour ago."
+
+Jack was off up the steps as though pursued.  Eph went after him as soon
+as that youth with the sun-kissed hair had time to pull on his visored
+cap and button his blouse.  No matter what the need of haste, Somers
+never appeared on deck looking less natty than a veteran naval officer.
+
+Forward, on the tug, stood a major of engineers, a young lieutenant
+beside him.
+
+"Good morning, Mr. Benson," hailed Major Woodruff.  "We're going to try
+to come in close enough to put a gang-plank over.  Can you take a bow
+line from us?"
+
+"Yes, sir," Captain Jack saluted the Army officer, and Eph hurried to
+receive the line.
+
+In less than two minutes Major Woodruff and Lieutenant Kline were on the
+platform deck of the "Spitfire."
+
+"This is the first one of your craft we've seen," declared the major, as
+Eph cast off the bow line, and the tug backed water.  "Will you show us
+over?"
+
+This the submarine boys gladly did, as the Army shares with the Navy in
+the defense of the country.
+
+"You see what you have to do, Kline," said Major Woodruff, presently.
+Then the older officer turned to Jack to say:
+
+"Mr. Benson, since Mr. Farnum has been kind enough to place you and the
+boat at our orders, Kline is going to remain on board, today, during the
+tests.  He will give Mr. Somers whatever orders are necessary in order
+to make the tests most successful."
+
+"Why not give the orders to me, sir?" Jack asked.
+
+"Why, you see, Mr. Benson," replied the major, "I plan for you to be on
+shore, out on the neck, to make certain observations regarding the work
+of your craft.  Those observations you will turn in to me."
+
+"Very good, sir.  The neck, I take it, is the narrow strip of land that
+separates this part of the bay from the ocean?"
+
+"Quite right, Mr. Benson."
+
+It was to be observed that the major, like naval officers, addressed Jack
+by the title of "mister," not "captain."  This was because, in the
+military service, Army and Navy titles are not recognized unless
+conferred by government appointment or commission.  Hence, though young
+Benson was "captain" to his crew and to civilians, officers of the
+United Service could address, him only as "mister."
+
+"The neck, Mr. Benson," continued Major Woodruff, "is the land best
+suited for watching our work from to-day.  And now, I will state what
+the object of to-day's tests is.  This morning our tug will be engaged
+in planting certain submarine mines.  Mr. Somers will watch our work of
+planting.  Of course the mines will contain no explosives.  You young
+men have, I understand, solved the problem of leaving a submarine boat
+while it lies on the bottom?  You are also able to enter the submarine
+again from the surface?"
+
+"Quite right, Major," Jack nodded.
+
+"Then, if Mr. Somers watches the planting of the dummy mines, he will
+have the same advantage as would the commander of an enemy's submarine
+in knowing where our mines are planted.  We shall plant four of them,
+this morning, and Mr. Somers, after seeing each mine planted, will mark
+down its position on a chart of the bay.  He will then take the boat
+outside, enter under water, and, without touching any of our mines,
+while handling the boat, will see if he can stop close by and cut the
+connecting wires."
+
+"If your mines contain no explosive, Major," Eph inquired, "how are you
+going to be able to tell whether I collide gently with one of your
+submarine mines?"
+
+"We shall know at once," smiled Major Woodruff.  "If you should collide
+with one, you will cause, a bell to be rung in the camera obscura room
+over at the fort.  The bell that rings will show us which one of the
+mines you touched against."
+
+The "camera obscura," as used at a modern fort, is in itself a most
+interesting contrivance.  While no elaborate description of it can be
+attempted here, it will be enough to explain to the reader that, in the
+camera room, which is darkened, is a large white table covered with
+white oil-cloth, or other white substance.  On this white surface is
+drawn a plan of the harbor to be defended.  The position of each mine
+sunk under the water's surface is indicated on this map against the
+white background.  Each mine is numbered.  Overhead is a revolving
+shutter, somewhat on the plan of a camera's lens shutter.  This shutter,
+which turns a reflecting lens on the harbor, can be turned in any
+direction.  Any vessel in the harbor can thus be "caught," and its
+reflection, in miniature, thrown upon the white map surface.
+
+Suppose an enemy's battleship to be entering the harbor.  The camera
+obscura shutter, in being turned about, suddenly throws upon the white
+screen-map the miniature picture of the hostile battleship.  Henceforth
+the officer in command sees to it that the shutter is so operated as
+to keep the image of the battleship always upon the white screen map.
+Thus the course of the battleship is followed--absolutely.  At any
+second the exact position of that battleship in the harbor is known.
+
+Let us suppose that the officer in command at the white, map-covered
+table finds that the battleship is gradually approaching the position
+indicated in the harbor as mine number nineteen; as the officer watches
+the moving image of the battleship, he sees it going closer and closer
+to the exact spot numbered nineteen or the white map.
+
+"Be ready, Sergeant," calls the officer, warningly, to a non-commissioned
+officer who stands before a board on the wall on which are several
+electric push-buttons, each numbered.
+
+"Yes, sir," replies the sergeant.
+
+At this moment the officer sees the image of the battleship passing
+fairly over the dot on the white map that is numbered nineteen.
+
+"Fire nineteen, Sergeant," calls the Army officer in charge.
+
+The non-commissioned officer quickly presses electric button numbered
+nineteen.  As he does so the electric current is sent flashing, perhaps
+along four or five miles of insulated wire on the bottom of the harbor.
+At the other end of that wire is submarine mine number nineteen.  In a
+breathless instant the current traverses the whole length of the wire.
+The spark has reached the gun-cotton!  There is a dull, booming sound;
+a great column of water shoots up from the surface.  In the midst of the
+commotion the enemy's battleship is rent, and all on board, perhaps
+killed.  The cool, dry-eyed Army officer bending over the white
+screen-map sees all this scene of horror depicted under the white
+surface beneath his eyes.  He knows that submarine mine number nineteen,
+planted out there in the harbor, has done its duty in protecting this
+portion of the coast of the United States.
+
+Here, at Fort Craven, it was desired to find whether an enemy's submarine
+boat could creep in, below the surface, find the mine, whose location
+was already known through spies, and effectively cut the firing wire.
+If this could be done, then, in war-time, it might be that the sergeant
+at the wall-board would press the button in vain.  No explosion would
+follow.  With the current thus cut off, the officer bending over the
+white screen would not see the miniature reproduction of the destruction
+of the enemy's battleship.
+
+A submarine torpedo boat, coming into a harbor underneath the surface,
+is not pictured on the white table under the camera obscura.  So it was
+desired to see whether Eph could come in, knowing the exact locations of
+each of the four dummy mines, and quickly cut the firing electric wires.
+If this could be done, the Army would have to revise its method of firing
+such submarine mines by means of the camera obscura detection.
+
+As Eph listened to the explanation his mind began to revolve plans
+rapidly whereby he hoped to succeed in cutting the mine wires.
+
+"You will keep sufficiently below the surface, too, Mr. Somers,"
+continued Major Woodruff.  "We do not want you so close to the surface
+of the water that a ripple would show on the camera obscura table.  You
+cannot, of course, rise and use your periscope to see where you are.
+Even the periscope would betray you."
+
+The "periscope" is a device also of the nature of a camera obscura.  In
+the case of the periscope a narrow metallic tube is thrust above the
+water and the shutter turned about, reflecting all the scene about on a
+white-covered table in the boat's cabin.
+
+"I think I can beat you, Major," smiled Eph.
+
+"I certainly hope you can," replied Major Woodruff.  "That is what we
+want to see today.  We shall watch closely, too, and see whether any
+plan can be devised for beating a submarine torpedo boat at its own
+game."
+
+Lieutenant Kline was to remain on board the "Spitfire," both in order to
+watch the work and to give Eph any instructions that might be necessary
+in order to make the tests more conclusive.
+
+"If you will come along with me, then, Mr. Benson," suggested Major
+Woodruff, "I will put you ashore on the neck.  On the way over I will
+give you your instructions."
+
+As the tug came alongside again Jack followed the major over the gang
+plank to the deck of the other craft.
+
+"Good-bye, Captain Somers," called Jack, laughingly.  "Give a fine
+account of yourself as an enemy of the United States!"
+
+"Oh, you--" began Eph, flaring red, but wisely cutting his speech
+short.
+
+On the way over to the strip of land known as the "neck" Major Woodruff
+managed to make his instructions wholly clear to young Benson.
+
+"Now, you know what to watch for, and what observations, to report to
+me," finished the major of engineers, as the tug came to a stop.  A
+small boat was lowered, and, in this, Captain Jack Benson was put on
+the desolate shore.
+
+Then the tug went back over by the fort.  Jack grew tired of waiting,
+for it was some two hours ere the tug finally left the ordinance wharf
+at Fort Craven.
+
+It was warm out there, on the low, sandy cliffs, provided one got into
+a position sheltered from the ocean winds.  So Jack, in the weariness
+of his waiting, threw himself down in a sheltered hollow.
+
+Finding that the sun shone disagreeably in his eyes, the submarine boy
+pulled his cap forward over his face.
+
+Then, in the course of a very few minutes, the inevitable happened.  Jack
+Benson drifted off into sleep.
+
+He awoke with a fearful start, for he had no idea how long he had slept.
+Yanking out his watch and noting the time, the submarine boy concluded
+that he had not been asleep more than twenty or thirty minutes.
+
+"But I might just as easily have slept for hours," Benson reproached
+himself.  "Then what a hero I'd have felt.  Asleep on post!"
+
+At that moment Jack Benson heard a faraway whistle, across the bay.
+Showing just the top of his head above a ridge of sand, Captain Jack
+saw the Army tug just pulling out from the dock across the bay.
+
+But Jack saw something else, too, in that brief instant.
+
+A slim, soldierly-looking man of perhaps thirty, tall and of naturally
+good carriage, was skulking along in front of the submarine boy, yet
+hidden from the bay by a sand ridge.
+
+Under one arm the stranger carried a draughtsman's board and a book.  A
+strap over one shoulder held a field-glass case.
+
+"Where in blazes have I seen that chap before?" wondered Captain Jack
+Benson, staring hard.  "For I have seen him--somewhere.  I'd declare
+that under oath."
+
+Figure, carnage and face all strangely haunted the submarine boy, who
+crouched lower, watching.
+
+"By the great turret gun!  He's skulking for a reason!" muttered Benson.
+"Is he spying on the mine-planting?  I wonder?  Yes!  That must be his
+work!  Long-legs, I'll keep my eyes on you!"
+
+The stranger hastened along for perhaps a quarter of a mile further.
+Then he threw himself down on the sand, choosing a position in which he
+could lie flat, his head fairly well hidden behind a low ridge of sand.
+
+Unslinging the field-glass, the stranger brought it to his eyes, closely
+watching the progress of the tug.
+
+"Ha-ha!" muttered watchful Jack, who had followed, keeping behind
+another sand ridge.  "So, sir!"
+
+The minutes passed, though Jack Benson was so absorbed in watching this
+long stranger that the boy had but the vaguest notions of the flight of
+time.
+
+The tug had halted, now.  A great crane at the bow swung around, and a
+submarine mine hung poised in the air.  Then, with a rattle of chains
+not audible at the distance, the mine was slowly lowered until it
+touched on bottom.
+
+While this was going on, the long-legged stranger, wholly absorbed in
+his own work, made some observations and some hurried calculations.
+Then he pulled the drawing-board toward him, jotting down a point.
+
+Jack Benson, standing stealthily, got a good look, for the first time,
+at the top of that drawing board.
+
+"A chart of the bay, of course," muttered Benson, savagely, between his
+teeth.  "The fellow is marking down the exact position of that mine!"
+
+Still, the submarine boy did nothing to betray his own presence.  He
+watched and wondered.  The thought struck him that this long-legged
+one might be an officer of the Army, on observation duty like the
+submarine boy himself.
+
+"But that isn't right; I'm sure it isn't," decided young Benson, quickly.
+"If they fellow were here on honest business, he wouldn't have sneaked
+out here to get in position.  Besides, I have a vague remembrance of
+this fellow, and I don't connect him with anything honest!"
+
+The Army tug, out on the bay, was now engaged in planting a second mine.
+Again the slim stranger was all attention.  When the crane began to
+lower the mine, a second mark was made on the chart on the drawing
+board.
+
+Now, once more, the fellow lay at full length, watching intently off
+over the bay.  At his right hand lay drawing-board, the book and the
+field-glasses.
+
+"I'll give him a little excitement!" grimaced Jack Benson, stealing
+softly forward.
+
+Suddenly the boy swooped down upon drawing board, book and glasses,
+then, with a panting whoop, wheeled and started off on a dead run.
+
+"Here you--stop!" yelled the slim one, hoarse with sudden anger.
+
+Like a flash the stranger was up and in pursuit.  As he quickened in
+the chase this stranger drew a revolver that glinted in the sun.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+JACK'S QUEER LOT OF LOOT
+
+
+"Stop, thief!"
+
+Jack Benson only sped onward the faster.
+
+"Halt, you young rascal!" roared the long-legged one, in pursuit.
+
+"The fellow who can call names like that, under the circumstances, has
+no sense of humor!" chuckled the submarine boy, inwardly.
+
+"Drop that chart and book!" panted the one in chase.  "You're stealing
+government property!"
+
+"Yes, but which government?" Jack shot back at his pursuer.
+
+"Are you going to stop?"
+
+Jack's answer was to increase his burst of speed slightly.
+
+"Then I'm going to fire!" came the warning.  Glancing over his shoulder
+the submarine boy saw the long-legged one still running after him.  At
+the same time the pursuer was raising his revolver, sighting.
+
+Jack felt a little shiver.  He had never been suspected of being a
+coward, yet he was willing to admit that he didn't want to feel a
+chunk of lead plowing its way through him.
+
+"Last word to halt!" yelled the pursuer, in an ugly tone.
+
+"Fire, then!" dared Jack Benson.
+
+Crack!  Whizz-zz!  Chug!  The weapon was discharged promptly.  Jack,
+still in flight, heard the bullet whistle by him.  Then it struck the
+sand, fifty feet ahead, throwing up a spurt of the fine particles.
+
+"That was for a caution.  The next shot will be to hit!" panted the
+pursuer.
+
+"I wonder if you can do it?" Jack taunted backward over his shoulder.
+
+There was method in the submarine boy's tactics.  He hoped, by making
+the stranger angry, to spoil his aim.
+
+Crack!  The bullet sped by, fanning the fugitive's face.  The close
+aim, however, had the reverse of the effect expected by the marksman.
+It roused all the submarine boy's anger.  He might be hit, but he
+would stop, now, only if a bullet laid him low.
+
+Two more shots sped after the fugitive.  Their aim was too close for
+comfort, though not true enough to score a hit.  Each of the shots
+sounded a bit further back, too.
+
+"He's getting winded," gritted the running submarine boy.  "With his long
+legs that chap ought to get over ground faster than I.  The difference
+is that that fellow is out of condition, and my hard work keeps me
+about up to the mark of condition all the time.  He--"
+
+Crack!  Jack happened to turn, just as the fellow fired, and the boy was
+able to see that the bullet struck the ground behind him.
+
+"Out of range!" clicked Benson.  "What's the good of carrying a pocket
+revolver for service work?  Now, if he had a dozen shots more left he
+would be wasting his cartridges to fire at me."
+
+In fact, it was plain enough that the pursuer had given up the chase for
+the time being.  Not only was he out of range of his quarry, but the
+long-legged one lacked the wind to keep on on foot.
+
+"Say, what a fool I'd have been, to give up this plunder!" cried Jack,
+mockingly.  "That chap couldn't catch me; he couldn't hit me.  So I've
+gotten away with the stuff he was so anxious to have--and which the
+Army, I'll bet, would a thousand times rather he didn't have!"
+
+"Now, how am I going to get back to the Army people?" wondered young
+Benson, slowing down to a walk, though keeping a vigilant lookout to
+the rear.  "I don't want to walk something like a million miles to find
+a place from which I can get across the bay."
+
+It was desolate country, over here.  Jack and the long-legged one, well
+to his rear, now, might be the only human beings within some miles.  The
+outlook was not an encouraging one.
+
+"Say!  Wow!  Whoop!  Blazes!" uttered Captain Jack, suddenly.  "Now, I
+remember Long-legs!  Millard was the name he gave when he came to us, at
+Dunhaven, last Fall.  He was the chap who wanted to work on the submarine
+construction.  Said he'd do any kind of work, but Grant Andrews put him
+in a separate shed, sorting and counting steel rivets, and never let him
+get near a submarine boat.  That's the same fellow--Millard.  Or, at
+least, that was the name he gave them.  But, when Millard found he wasn't
+going to do anything but take care of rivets, he threw up the job four
+days after.  He had pretended to be mighty hard up, too, and wanted work
+at any sort of wages."
+
+Jack's face began to glow as he remembered more and more of the brief
+career of Millard at Dunhaven.
+
+"And Dave Pollard, when he was over in Washington later, said he ran
+across Millard living at the swell Arlington Hotel!  Millard had a
+different name in Washington, and refused to recognize Mr. Pollard--said
+there was some mistake.  By hookey!  There isn't any mistake.  Millard
+was trying to steal submarine secrets at Dunhaven, and now he's trying
+to map out harbor defenses in Craven Bay!"
+
+Again Captain Jack glanced backward over his shoulder, but Millard was
+no longer in sight.
+
+"He knew me, probably, in a flash," muttered the submarine boy.  "I'm
+sorry I didn't recognize him sooner."
+
+Having gotten his wind back, Jack broke into a run again.  Just because
+Millard had dropped out of sight was no reason for taking chances of a
+sudden swoop from the stranger.
+
+For some five minutes Jack Benson jogged along.  Then he came in sight
+of a little semicove.  Here lay a small motor launch, whose skipper,
+somewhat of the fisherman type, was busily engaged with the engine.
+
+"Say," hailed young Benson, running down to the water's edge, "can you
+start your engine at once?"
+
+"I reckon," nodded the fisherman, looking up.
+
+"Run your bow in, so I can get aboard, then," directed Captain Jack,
+briskly.  "I want to get over to where the Army tug is at work.  Do
+you know where that is--over to the southeast ward?"
+
+"Yep," nodded the fisherman.
+
+"I'll give you three dollars to take me over there in a hustle," proposed
+Jack.
+
+"You're easy enough," grinned the man in the boat, starting the engine,
+then lightly driving the bow of the boat upon the sand.  "But you'll pay
+me in advance."
+
+"Certainly," nodded the submarine boy, taking out the money, as he
+stepped into the boat, and handing it over.
+
+"Now, pick up that boathook, and shove off, and we'll start," added the
+master of the little launch.
+
+As Jack snatched up the boathook he caught, sight of Millard, three
+hundred yards away, just coming in sight on a run.
+
+"You'd better get your engine going fast," warned Jack, "or that fellow
+headed this way will make trouble for us both.  He's carrying a gun."
+
+The skipper took just one look at Millard, who was racing along, pistol
+in hand, and was prepared to believe his present passenger.  That little
+launch stole out of the cover under its reverse gear until the master of
+the craft thought himself far enough from shore for him to be out of
+range of Millard's weapon.
+
+"Who is that feller?" asked the fisherman, when satisfied that he was at
+a safe distance and increasing it every instant.
+
+"From the way he's dancing up and down, it looks as if he were crazy,"
+laughed Jack, coolly.
+
+"What's his particular specialty in craziness?" asked the master of the
+launch, looking shrewdly at the submarine boy.
+
+"Now, see here," protested Benson, good humoredly, "as I understand it,
+you're paid to take me over to the Army tug--not to ask questions.  Am
+I right?"
+
+"You're right," nodded the fisherman, then surveyed the boy's uniform
+curiously.
+
+"Your uniform looks like you was in the Navy?" suggested the man at the
+stern of the boat.
+
+"Does it?" queried Jack.
+
+"Are you in the Navy?" persisted the boat man.
+
+"Just now, I'm serving with the Army," Captain Jack replied, evasively.
+
+"Are you--" started in the human interrogation point, anew.
+
+"See here," broke in the submarine boy, "I thought we agreed you had just
+one job to do for me, and that questions formed no part of it."
+
+"That's right," agreed the fisherman.  "But say, there's just one
+question I wish you'd answer me.  Are you--"
+
+"No!" interrupted Benson, decisively.  "I am not.  I never was."
+
+"You didn't let me finish," complained the man.
+
+"Wait until I'm out of the boat," proposed the submarine boy.  "Then ask
+all the questions you like.  Maybe you're paid to ask questions, but I'm
+paid to hold my mouth shut."
+
+It went a good deal against the submarine boy's grain to be so brusque
+with an inquisitive stranger, but there seemed to be no other defense.
+
+"Oh, well, if you're ashamed of your business--" retorted the
+fisherman, falling into a sullen silence.
+
+This turn of affairs just suited Benson.  He compressed his lips and sat
+back, looking out across the bay at the tug, which was at work some
+three miles away.
+
+"Can you put on a little more speed?" inquired Jack.
+
+"No," answered the fisherman, sulkily.  "Doin' all the gait she'll
+kick now."
+
+So Jack possessed his soul in patience until the wheezy little launch
+had covered the whole distance.
+
+While still some two hundred yards off Jack caught sight of Major
+Woodruff coming out of the after cabin of the tug.
+
+"Ahoy, Major!" yelled the submarine boy, holding his hands to his lips.
+"Perhaps you'd better stop work until I've reported."
+
+Then the launch ran in alongside, and Jack stepped up to the deck of
+the tug, holding tightly to the loot he had taken from Millard.
+
+The master of the launch manifested a disposition to hang about in the
+near vicinity, until curtly ordered away by Major Woodruff.
+
+"I suppose you thought, Major, that I took a good deal upon myself in
+advising you to suspend work," Jack hinted.  "Yet I've something to
+show you, and much to tell you.  And I'm wagering an anchor to a
+fish-hook that you'll be glad you stationed me over on that neck of
+sand."
+
+Major Woodruff led the way back into the cabin.  There he examined the
+chart, with a start of astonishment.
+
+"The fellow was marking down all our mine positions," came savagely from
+between the Army officer's teeth.
+
+Then he picked up the book.
+
+"A nice little assortment of notes on matters of military interest along
+this coast," muttered the soldier.  "Your long-legged fellow has been
+busy at other points than Craven's Bay."
+
+Then, closing the book with a snap, Major Woodruff looked keenly at the
+submarine boy as he remarked:
+
+"Mr. Benson, I think our present submarine tests can be well suspended.
+We have a much more important task ahead of us--to catch this impudent
+thief of military secrets!  And, in this undertaking, Benson, you can be
+of the greatest sort of help!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+SIGHTING THE ENEMY
+
+
+"You can count on me, sir," declared Captain Jack Benson, eagerly.
+
+"I can count on every one of you submarine boys, can't I?" asked Major
+Woodruff, thoughtfully.
+
+"You can count on us," declared Benson, earnestly, "as though every one
+of us were sworn into the service and had a record of being tried and
+tested!"
+
+In an instant after speaking the submarine boy realized that this must
+have had a boastful sound.  So he added, quickly:
+
+"Please don't suspect me, Major, of being a braggart.  But Hal, Eph and
+I have always taken our work with seriousness.  We have always acted
+just as though the Flag depended upon us for its protection.  We have
+the desire, every minute of our lives, to be great Americans--that is,
+great in our devotion to the Flag, even if we cannot be great in deeds."
+
+"By Jove, I believe you!" cried Major Woodruff, reaching forward and
+clasping Jack's hand tightly in his own.
+
+The major went on heartily:
+
+"No, no, Benson, I don't consider you boastful.  You're talking the way
+I heard some youngsters talk when I was a boy.  It's refreshing and
+encouraging to hear you talk that way.  Do you know, boy, when we older
+fellows sometimes get to thinking of the country's past glories, we
+wonder whether the boys of to-day are going to make such men as have
+carried the United States of America forward in the past?  The thought
+makes us solemn and anxious.  I suppose every man who is grown and on
+toward middle life has always, in every generation, wondered whether
+boys were as serious and dependable, as staunch and loyal as the boys
+of the day before yesterday.  Look here, lad!"
+
+Major Woodruff rose, stepping to the door aft and throwing it open.  The
+stern of the tug was visible.  From the pole that slanted out over the
+stern, hung the Stars and Stripes.
+
+"You don't need to glance at that fine old bit of bunting more than a
+second, lad," continued the major, "before you feel all that it can ever
+make you feel.  In your case, I believe the sight of the Flag is always
+an inspiration to you.  I pray it is so with every boy who grows up in
+this country.  But is it?"
+
+Standing there before the Flag, Jack quietly doffed his cap.
+
+"Thank you, Benson," acknowledged the major, also doffing his own cap.
+Then, closing the door, Major Woodruff stepped back to the table on
+which lay chart and book.
+
+"This chart, Benson, shows what the rascal Millard, has been doing out
+on the neck.  This book proves that he has been at work at some other
+points.  The book doesn't tell much of the story, though.  Of that I
+am certain.  Millard, if he has been at work long, has compiled other
+notes in other written volumes.  If so, then he has also made other
+charts of our coast defenses.  For what other government has he thus
+marked a series of charts with our secrets?  And has Millard succeeded
+in getting other charts, and other books of notes, off to the foreign
+government he is serving--or has he them hidden somewhere in this
+country, awaiting his chance to take the results of his spying out of
+the United States?"
+
+"I wish I knew!" muttered Jack.
+
+"I'm coming to the point," continued Major Woodruff, briskly.  "Now, of
+course, when we discover evidence that spies of other governments are at
+work along our lines of national defenses, the first thing we try to do
+is to catch these foreign agents and all the material they have
+succeeded in getting together."
+
+Major Woodruff, who was becoming considerably excited, paused to light
+a cigar, ere he continued, more slowly:
+
+"Now, you and your two friends, Benson, know this fellow Millard.  You
+will spot him instantly, wherever you go.  I shall communicate with
+Washington, at once, by means of a telegram in cipher.  The War
+Department will order me to use all speed in catching Millard, and in
+finding out where he keeps his other stolen records.  Men and money will
+be used in running down this fellow.  Yet you and your two chums should
+be in the front ranks of pursuit, for you will know him the instant you
+lay eyes on him."
+
+"You want me to take my friends ashore, then, Major, and lay the
+'Spitfire' up?"
+
+"By no means," answered Major Woodruff, decisively.  "In reality
+operations will be suspended at this point until we have run Millard
+down.  Yet we must have the appearance of being as busy as ever.  The
+submarine will hover about, and this tug will be busy, apparently, in
+laying the bay with mines.  You have a fourth man on your boat?"
+
+"Yes, sir; Williamson, the machinist."
+
+"Can he run the engines all right?"
+
+"As well as any of us, Major."
+
+"Then I will put aboard a man who can steer.  Thus the 'Spitfire' will
+be seen moving about the bay, and apparently at work.  I'll also put
+aboard a guard of a sergeant and three or four soldiers of the engineer
+corps, and they'll guard that boat from harm with their lives.  That
+will leave all three of you young officers of the 'Spitfire' free for
+shore duty."
+
+"It will, Major.  And now, sir, what is that shore duty to be?"
+
+"Simply to locate Millard.  He may be at one of the hotels in Radford."
+
+Radford was the busy, important little port four miles farther up the
+bay.
+
+"He's likely to be somewhere in Radford, anyway," nodded young Benson.
+
+"Wherever the fellow is found, he must be seized at once," continued
+Major Woodruff, warmly.  "Any policeman will seize him on your request.
+I will give each of you three a written statement that you have been
+asked to locate Millard and have him arrested.  If you run across
+Millard anywhere, turn him over to a policeman, then show my written
+authorization.  On that the police authorities will hold the scoundrel
+and notify the military authorities.  Then, once we have Millard out at
+Fort Craven, securely under lock and key, by authority from Washington,
+we will make every effort under the sun to locate his charts and
+notebooks."
+
+"Why, the work you want us to do is going to be easy enough," murmured
+Captain Jack.
+
+"It is going to be easy, if you succeed in finding the fellow, and in
+turning him over to a policeman," replied Major Woodruff.  "And, by the
+way, I have just remembered that Lieutenant Ridder, of the engineer
+corps, reported last night from a former station in the West.  No one
+around here will know him.  Good enough!  I'll have Ridder get into
+citizen's clothes and go about with you three.  He can give you
+instructions on any point about which you're in doubt."
+
+"We ought to run that rascal down, sir," answered Jack Benson, rising.
+"Unless--"
+
+"Unless what, Benson?"
+
+"Why, sir, unless he's more clever than a rascal usually succeeds in
+being.  I haven't lived so very long, Major Woodruff, but, from what
+little I've seen of the world, it has struck me that the cleverest
+scoundrels are always just a little less smart, in the end, than the
+average of honest men."
+
+"I hope you'll prove it, in this case," replied the major.  "And now, to
+signal your boat.  We'll run both craft in at the ordnance dock at Fort
+Craven."
+
+A couple of miles away Eph Somers was slowly running the submarine back
+and forth over the water in seeming aimlessness.  In response to sharp
+blasts from the whistle of the Army tug, the "Spitfire" was seen to
+turn and head for the tug.
+
+"Mr. Somers, you will follow in our wake," shouted Major Woodruff, when
+the two craft were within hailing distance of each other.  "We will
+show you where to make fast at the ordnance dock."
+
+"Very good, sir," Eph responded, with a salute.
+
+A little later in the forenoon both boats docked at the water front of
+Fort Craven.
+
+"You'll come up to my quarters, now, and meet Lieutenant Ridder,"
+announced the Major, when he had gathered the submarine boys together,
+and when Jack had given necessary explanations to Williamson.
+
+"You may not see us again, for a few days," Jack informed the machinist,
+in winding up.
+
+"That won't surprise me so very much, either," laughed the machinist.
+"Things are always happening, where you are, and mysteries have ceased
+to puzzle me."
+
+"Have you young men ever been on a military post before?" inquired
+Major Woodruff, as he led them up from the dock.
+
+"Never sir," replied Jack.  "We have seen considerable of Navy life, but
+this is the first time we've ever been at a fort."
+
+"You don't see much about this place, do you," laughed the engineer
+officer, "that makes you think of a fort?"
+
+"Not much," Benson admitted.
+
+"Yet we have a fighting plant here that could prevent a big fleet,
+indeed, from getting far up the bay at the important cities beyond.
+That is," Woodruff continued, thoughtfully, in a low voice, "if the
+enemy, in advance of his coming here, doesn't know all about our defenses
+through the work of spies."
+
+Just at the point near the dock, Fort Craven looked not unlike the yard
+of a big factory plant.  Wagons going and coming constantly heightened
+this effect.  Beyond, past the plain, on one side, Major Woodruff
+pointed out the barracks of the Coast Artillery, of the Engineers
+soldiers, and of the Infantry.  There were also laborers' quarters,
+several office buildings, a hospital, a chapel, and two streets of
+cottages that served as quarters for the officers stationed at Fort
+Craven.
+
+It was into one of these officers' streets that Major Woodruff soon led
+his three young companions.  Admitting the boys to his home, the major
+took them to the library on the ground floor.
+
+"Now, I'll telephone for Lieutenant Ridder to come over in citizen's
+dress," announced the major.  "At the same time, I must advise Colonel
+Totten, who is commander of the post.  He may come over here, or he may
+order us all over to headquarters."
+
+Colonel Totten elected to come over to the major's quarters.  He arrived
+just after Lieutenant Ridder, who proved to be a rather boyish looking
+young man, not long out of West Point.
+
+The plans were quickly laid by which Lieutenant Ridder was to take an
+automobile up to Radford, going to one of the hotels and registering.
+
+Jack and his two chums were to make the journey in another auto.  They
+would go to still other hotels, perhaps to three different ones.  At any
+moment when instructions were needed, any one of the three could call up
+Lieutenant Ridder on the telephone.
+
+In addition, Major Woodruff gave each of the three submarine boys a
+written and signed authorization for them to call upon the police to
+seize Millard, if found, and hold the fellow for the United States
+military authorities.
+
+"Now, you young men may start for Radford," continued the major.
+"Colonel Totten and I will busy ourselves with the despatches that must
+be sent to Washington about this affair.  But I trust, lads, you will
+not fail to realize the importance of prompt success."
+
+"It's a special duty to the Flag, sir," Captain Jack answered, simply.
+
+The automobiles were waiting outside.  Lieutenant Ridder was given a
+three minutes' start.  Then the submarine boys followed after, in a
+second car.
+
+As Radford was but four miles distant from the post the trip was not to
+be a long one.
+
+"This is the sort of job that has me by the ears," glowed Eph Somers,
+enthusiastically.  "I won't be selfish enough to say I hope to be the
+fellow to catch Millard.  But, if he does stray my way, I hope I won't
+be idiot enough to let him slip through my fingers."
+
+"I don't care if Lieutenant Ridder is the one who nabs him," remarked
+Hal, coolly.  "All that I'm particular about is to see this foreign
+agent nabbed before he succeeds in getting any information out of the
+country."
+
+The car that bore the boys was soon driving through the streets of
+Radford.  Jack held in his hand a list of the better grade and
+middle-class hotels that Colonel Totten had given him.
+
+"Which hotel are we going to first?" asked Hal.
+
+"I don't know," uttered Jack, suddenly, sharply.  "I know what I'm going
+to do, however."
+
+Leaning slightly forward the young submarine captain prodded the
+chauffeur lightly, twice, in the back--a signal that had been agreed
+upon at need.
+
+In response, the chauffeur ran the car slowly in at the curb.
+
+Captain Jack, opening the tonneau door, was quickly out on the sidewalk,
+without any need having risen for wholly stopping the car, which then
+shot forward again.
+
+"Now, what on earth was that for?" demanded Eph Somers, as the car
+sped on.
+
+"Don't look back," replied Hal.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Well, a certain party would see you looking at him."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Why, Jack had the good luck to see Millard going along on the sidewalk.
+We've just passed the fellow!"
+
+"Are we going to nab him?" demanded Somers, breathlessly.
+
+"You'll have to leave that decision to good old Jack," chuckled Hal
+Hastings.  "He's out there, dogging Millard from the rear.  It's Jack
+Benson's affair just at this moment."
+
+It was mighty hard for Eph to refrain from looking back.  But he
+restrained his curiosity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+FLANK MOVEMENT AND REAR ATTACK
+
+
+When Jack Benson first touched the sidewalk, and the automobile glided
+on, leaving him in the wake of Millard, it was the young submarine
+captain's intention to follow his instructions to the letter.
+
+Millard, having no especial reason of his own for feeling in danger, was
+walking along at a moderate gait, occasionally glancing into shop
+windows or gazing at the people whom he passed.
+
+He did not look behind, so it was easy for Jack, less than half a block
+to the rear, and keeping close to the buildings, to follow without being
+detected.
+
+"Hullo," muttered the submarine boy.  "There's a policeman on the
+crossing at the next corner.  In another moment our long-legged one will
+be safely in custody."
+
+Feeling in his inner coat pocket for the written authorization, Benson's
+fingers touched the envelope.
+
+"He's easily caught;" murmured the boy.
+
+There is sometimes a big slip between a wish and its fulfillment.  Just
+as Captain Jack was on the point of darting out into the street to hail
+the policeman a street car whizzed by.  With a flying leap the policeman
+landed on the front platform and was whirled along the thoroughfare.
+
+"Lesson number one about being too sure," grumbled disappointed young
+Benson.  "However, we'll soon come upon another policeman."
+
+Two blocks more were covered, however, without sighting a bluecoat.  Jack
+even began to wonder how it would do to leap upon Millard, calling upon
+passing citizens to aid him until a policeman arrived.
+
+"But that would be a two-edged sword, that might cut too keenly on the
+wrong side," reflected the submarine boy.  "Millard would be sure to
+claim that I was assaulting him.  It would look like that, too, and
+I'd probably get a thumping from the crowd, while Millard slipped away.
+Then he would be warned that he was wanted, and he'd make himself mighty
+scarce after that."
+
+Still no policeman came into sight.
+
+"Gracious!" muttered Jack Benson, suddenly.  He had just glanced into a
+store's show window, where a mirror was set at an angle.  The submarine
+boy, looking into that mirror, became aware that he could see people at
+a considerable distance behind him down the street.
+
+"I wonder if Millard has been taking sights, too, and has had a peep at
+me, that way?" muttered the boy.
+
+At the next corner the long-legged one, after a brief look down the side
+street, turned into it.
+
+"Now, that we're getting away from the main street there'll be far less
+chance of finding a police officer," sighed Jack, at last wholly
+discontented with luck.
+
+Millard led without, apparently, ever thinking to glance back.  He
+turned a second corner, into another small street, and kept on.
+
+"This is getting more exciting," muttered the young trailer.  "Yet all
+signs point to the fact that I've got to make the grab all by myself.
+I wonder if I can down that chap and get the upper hand of him?  I don't
+mind a thumping, but I'd be sadly ashamed of myself to let the fellow
+get away from me."
+
+Millard was walking briskly, now.  Next, he turned sharply to the left.
+
+"Ah!" Then Jack Benson shot swiftly forward on tip-toe, trying to make
+no noise as he ran.
+
+For the long-legged one had, to all seeming, at the distance, wheeled
+and gone through the wall of a brick building.
+
+Just an instant later, however, this impossible feat was explained.  The
+submarine boy found himself at the street-end of a narrow alley between
+two brick buildings.
+
+"He has gone into the rear house, at the end of the alleyway," decided
+Benson, peering down this narrow thoroughfare.  "He has left the door
+partly open, too.  I'll have to have a look-in."
+
+As he stole down the alley-way Jack Benson was too sensible, and by this
+time, too much experienced in the ways of a rougher world, not to suspect
+that there might be some trap in that door partly open.  "He may have
+seen me, and may have left that door open on purpose," Benson reflected.
+"He may be lying in wait for me, inside.  Or else he may have left that
+door open, just to make me suspect a trap and keep out.  In the meantime,
+he may be slipping through a door on the other side of the house, and
+sneaking away from me."
+
+For a few seconds Jack Benson paused thoughtfully on the step just
+outside the door that was partly ajar.
+
+"I may walk into a trap, by going inside, or I may be letting that
+wretch walk out of one by staying out here," wavered Benson, torn
+between two impulses.
+
+Then, just as suddenly, this thought flashed through his mind:
+
+"What you're doing is for the Flag!  Never mind what happens to you,
+Jack Benson.  Just rash in and say '_here goes_'!"
+
+There was not another second's hesitation.  Jack Benson softly pushed
+the door far enough open to admit him.  At the back of the hallway he
+saw stairs leading below.
+
+"Basement stairs, with a rear basement door letting out on another
+alleyway!" suspected the submarine boy.
+
+Though he had determined to be as reckless as seemed necessary in order
+to get quickly on the trail of the vanished one, Jack moved on tip-toe.
+He had all but reached the head of the stairs when a ground-floor door
+behind him opened noiselessly.  The long-legged one, who had an equally
+good reach of arm, thrust out a noose that fell over the boy's head.
+
+"Ug-g-g-gh!" rattled in Jack Benson's throat, as Millard, in grim
+silence, jerked the rope noose tight about the boy's neck.  A sharp pull,
+a twist, and Millard had the boy face down in that hallway, and was
+kneeling on the victim's back.
+
+"You ought to have known enough to keep away from me," growled the
+wretch, as he tightened on the noose.
+
+That was about the last that the young submarine captain heard or knew,
+just then, for things were rapidly growing black before his eyes.
+Jack tried to fight, but the choking was too severe.  He couldn't get
+even a breath of air into his lungs to give him fighting strength.
+
+Finding that the boy's struggles had ceased, the long-legged one eased
+off on the noose.  He bent Jack's arms behind him so that the wrists
+crossed.  Then, pulling another cord from one of his pockets, the
+wretch tied the youngster's hands with a few deft movements.  Oh, but
+this rascal was an expert artist with ropes and cords.
+
+Jack felt himself being prodded just over the pit of the stomach, and
+his senses slowly wandered back to him under the disturbing handling.
+He was lying on his back, when his eyes opened once more.  His throat
+felt sore, but he could breathe again.
+
+Then the submarine boy discovered that his hands and feet were securely
+lashed.  Beyond that, he discovered Millard squatting on the floor,
+close by, in Japanese fashion, for the foreign agent was sitting back
+on his own crossed heels.
+
+"Feel wholly comfortable?" mockingly inquired the foreign agent, when
+he saw the boy's eyes open.
+
+"Not especially, thank you," mumbled the boy, dryly.
+
+Jack had discovered, by this time, that he was lying on a wooden floor,
+very likely in the basement of the house.  The room contained no
+furniture, beyond an old table.  Daylight was excluded by wooden
+shutters fastened into place over the windows.  On the table a single
+candle burned in a candlestick.
+
+"Why didn't you bring along with you, Benson," sneered the long fellow,
+"the property of mine that you stole from me?"
+
+It was plain, then, that the foreign agent remembered the submarine boy
+well.
+
+"Why are you playing this fool trick on me?" counter-questioned Captain
+Jack.  "You knew I didn't have the--the things with me.  You could see
+that."
+
+"I put you to this inconvenience," replied the foreign agent, "because
+I wanted to know a few things.  In the first place, why are you bothering
+with me, or with my plans?"
+
+Jack remained silent.
+
+"Won't talk, eh?  Oh, well, then, perhaps we can find out a few things
+without any very especial help from you."
+
+Millard bent over, thrusting his hand into one after another of young
+Benson's pockets.  In so doing he brought to light the envelope in the
+lad's inner coat pocket.  Just an instant later, the wretch snatched
+the folded sheet from the envelope, spread the paper open and held
+it up to the light.
+
+"Ho-ho!" sneered the rascal, "an order authorizing you to cause my
+arrest?  This disposes of your case, then, young Mr. Benson!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A LESSON IN SECURITY AND INFORMATION
+
+
+Despite the savageness of his utterance Millard continued to gaze
+thoughtfully, for a few moments, at the submarine boy's face.
+
+As the rascal gazed, however, a grayness came into his cheeks that,
+somehow, smote Captain Jack with secret terror.
+
+"I--I don't see how it can be helped," gasped Millard, at last, in an
+altered tone that came as another dash of ice water over the submarine
+boy.  "Benson, I hate to do it.  I'd hate to use a dog in such a way,
+but--but there's no help for it!"
+
+A long-drawn-out sigh, a still queerer look in his face, then the
+scoundrel broke forth again:
+
+"It's your own fault, after all, boy, and there's no help for it."
+
+"By and by I suppose you'll enlighten me as to what 'it' means?" hinted
+Jack, trying hard to bolster up a courage that, none the less, would
+ooze and drop.
+
+Millard's only answer was to bend over the boy and roll him somewhat in
+examining the prisoner's bonds.  It was through this that Jack discovered
+what he had not known before--namely, that his wrists, besides being
+bound behind his back, were also lashed fast to something in the
+flooring.
+
+There was a queer little choke in Millard's breathing as he went out of
+the room and returned with a bushel basket of shavings.  These he
+dumped on the floor, close to a wall.  Then, again, he went out.  When
+he returned he was carrying a can of coal-oil.  The contents he poured
+over the shavings, then against the wall.  Next, over the shavings, he
+heaped three or four newspapers.
+
+Jack Benson didn't ask questions.  Millard went at it all in such a
+business-like way that the submarine boy felt the words sticking in
+his throat; they couldn't be uttered.
+
+Finally, when all else was ready, Millard took the lighted candle out
+of the candlestick.
+
+"This candle will burn for thirty minutes yet," guessed the wretch,
+noting its unburned length with the air of an expert "That will be time
+enough.  Poor lad!"
+
+He set the lighted candle down on top of the papers, over the pile of
+oil-soaked shavings.  It fitted nicely into a place that the wretch
+had made ready for it.  Then, without a word, the long-legged one
+tip-toed softly over and bent beside the submarine boy.
+
+"Open your mouth," he ordered.
+
+Of course Captain Jack didn't propose to do anything of the sort.  With
+one hand, however, Millard gripped the boy's nostrils, pressing tightly.
+Just a little later Jack had to open his mouth for air.
+
+"Thank you," mocked the other, and neatly shoved a handkerchief between
+the boy's jaws.  This he tied in place, and rising, looked down upon a
+gagged foe.  Then, with a last look over at the candle, the long-legged
+one darted from the room.
+
+Left alone, Jack Benson watched that candle on top of the prepared heap.
+His eyes gleamed with the fascination of terror.  When that candle
+burned down to the right point it would set fire to the paper, and
+then--!
+
+Try as he would to bolster his grit, Captain Jack Benson found himself
+in a fearful plight.  At first, he could only stare, with terror-dilated
+eyes, at that candle--ever burning just a slight fraction shorter!
+
+While the horror-laden moments were dragging by Jack heard a step on
+the stairs behind his head.  Then he realized that some one was looking
+into the room.  Then a voice spoke.  It was Millard's, though scarcely
+recognizable on account of its huskiness.
+
+"It's a fearful thing to do, Benson, but--but I can't help it!  If you
+only knew what it means to me to win!"
+
+Then followed a moment of utter silence.  Jack could hear his own heart
+beating, as he fancied he could hear that of his persecutor.  Then
+there was another sound, as though some light-weight metallic object
+had fallen to the floor.
+
+"Good-bye, old chap!  I--I respect you for your calm grit--that's
+all I can say."
+
+There was the sound of a quick turn, then soft footsteps.  Jack knew
+that Millard had fled.
+
+"He respects me for my 'calm grit'!" laughed Jack, grimly--almost
+hysterically.  "Doesn't the scoundrel know that I'm all but frozen
+into the torpor of dread?"
+
+Then, just as suddenly, an anguished "oh!" broke from the boy's lips, to
+be followed, instantly, by a tremor of hope.
+
+For, except at the time when interrupted by Millard's return, the young
+submarine captain had been fighting savagely at the bonds behind his
+back.  Now, he fancied, he heard or felt a single strand giving way.
+
+"I've got to get out of this quickly, if at all!" quavered the boy,
+staring with wavering eyes at the ever-shortening candle-bit.  "There
+won't be anything left to do--except bear it--if I'm ten minutes
+longer at this all but hopeless task."
+
+After a few frenzied moments of struggle there was another "r-r-rip"
+behind him--close to his wrists.
+
+Now, young Benson fought with rage and frenzied strength.  His gaze was
+ever toward the candle, burning lower.  It seemed as if it must
+communicate its flame to the paper at any instant.
+
+There came another ripping sound.  Captain Jack Benson, though he
+could not see, felt something giving around his wrists.  Frantically
+he squirmed and twisted with his hands.  Then, suddenly, his wrists
+fell apart--free!
+
+With an exulting throb of gratitude for this well-nigh unexpected boon,
+Benson forced himself up into a sitting posture.  He was shaking, now,
+from sheer nervousness.
+
+Swiftly, tremulously, he felt in his pockets.
+
+"My long-legged friend never thought to take my knife--probably because
+he hadn't the slightest idea I'd be able to use it," thrilled the
+submarine boy, as he forced a blade open.
+
+It didn't seem to take an instant, now, to cut the cords and set his
+feet free.  Jack staggered to his feet.  The lighted candle had burned
+down, now, even more perilously close to the paper--but what did the
+submarine boy care now?  At the worst, he could easily run from this
+house which, he felt certain, was untenanted save for himself.
+
+As soon as he could steady himself well enough, Benson bent and snatched
+up the burning candle from the tinder-like bed on which it stood propped.
+
+"Instead of destroying me," he chuckled, "this candle will now light me
+on my way out."
+
+At the doorway at the end of the room Jack Benson, by some strange
+chance, happened to remember that slight metallic sound of something
+falling to the floor while Millard was speaking.  Now, Jack bent over,
+holding the candle to aid him in his hunt.  Ah!  There it was!  Yet how
+utterly insignificant--nothing but a hairpin!
+
+"Trifles often lead to something big, though," muttered the submarine
+boy, dropping the hairpin into his pocket.  "I've been too much around
+machinery to despise small things."
+
+Candle in hand, Jack quickly ascended through the rest of the house,
+after finding, in the lower hallway, a stout stick that he picked up.
+With this club he felt he had a weapon to be depended upon at need.
+
+But there was nothing in the rest of the little three-story house to
+throw any light upon the habits of Millard, or the place for which
+that worthy had departed.
+
+In one upper room Benson found a small mirror hung from a nail in the
+wall.  In this same room was a small trunk, lid up and empty.
+
+Back to the basement Jack returned.  At the rear he found a small yard.
+Beyond that a fence, with a gate in it.  The gate was unlocked.  On a
+nail at the edge of the gateway Jack found a fluttering fragment of
+gray veiling.
+
+"A woman has left here," thought Jack, holding the fragment of veiling
+in his hand.  "Or else Millard got away disguised as a woman.  That
+trunk may have held woman's apparel for the very purposes of such an
+escape."
+
+This rear gateway opened upon a long, narrow alley that led to a street
+beyond.
+
+Having satisfied himself on this point, Benson stepped back into the
+yard.
+
+"Hold on!  Here's something that will help," muttered the boy, staring
+down curiously at the ground.
+
+It was the imprint of a foot in a wet spot on the ground.  As Jack bent
+over it he saw the marks of diagonal criss-crossing such as is found
+in the soles of rubbers.
+
+"The print is a fresh one.  Either Millard wore rubbers away, or some
+woman has been here who wore them," Jack concluded.
+
+Dropping his cudgel, since he would have no use for it, Benson made his
+way down the alley to the street beyond.  At the corner stood a small
+grocery store, whose proprietor was in the doorway.
+
+"I wonder," began Jack, "whether you saw a woman came down out of this
+alley-way lately?  A tall woman?"
+
+"About twenty minutes ago I saw a tall woman, in a gray dress and
+wearing a gray veil," replied the storekeeper.
+
+"Was she carrying anything?"
+
+"Some sort of a grip--a suit case, I guess."
+
+"Did you ever see the woman before?" persisted Jack.
+
+The storekeeper shook his head.
+
+"Which way did the woman go?"
+
+"I don't remember, particularly, but I think down that way," replied the
+grocer, pointing.
+
+Jack hurried along.  It was a quiet part of the town.  None of the people
+to whom he spoke within the next three or four minutes remembered having
+seen the tall, veiled woman in gray, though some "thought" they
+"might have."
+
+"I reckon," wisely decided Captain Jack Benson, "that I know just about
+enough to take my information to Lieutenant Ridder."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+EPH FEELS LIKE THIRTY TACKS
+
+
+As agreed, the young West Pointer was in a room at the Grindley House.
+As this room was equipped with a telephone, the young Army man was in
+touch both with Fort Craven and with the submarine boys, should the
+latter find anything to report over the talking wire.
+
+Here in the room Captain Jack found Ridder, for the boy had felt it
+best to go direct to the hotel.
+
+"Surely, you haven't found out anything as quickly as this?" asked the
+young lieutenant of engineers, looking up in surprise.
+
+"I've learned a few things," replied Jack, quietly.
+
+"Sit down, and let us hear what you've learned."
+
+Jack dropped to the chair, but Lieutenant Ridder, when he heard the news,
+was so excited that no chair could hold him.
+
+"Jove!  and just our luck!" gasped the Army officer.  "No policeman
+in sight!  Now, if you three boys had kept together--"
+
+"But, you see, when I dropped from the automobile, I wasn't sure it was
+Millard.  I had had only a glance, and his face was away from me."
+
+"If you see that wretch again, jump on him wherever he is."
+
+"I could have done it, this last time," Benson nodded.  "Yet I had an
+idea that, if I followed him, he might lead me to the place where he
+kept his maps and his other stolen information.  And he did, I guess,"
+added Jack, with a somewhat disappointed smile.
+
+"Wait a moment.  I'll try to get Major Woodruff over the wire," muttered
+Lieutenant Ridder.  "He may have some orders for us."
+
+Major Woodruff was at his home.  He heard the message and sent his
+orders crisply.
+
+"The major thinks we had better keep this matter from the police, yet,
+and do our best to find Millard, either in his own garments, or behind
+that gray dress and veil," announced the Army lieutenant.
+
+"Then I wish we had the other boys here," muttered Jack, wistfully.
+
+At that moment the 'phone bell rang.  It was Hal, reporting, and
+inquiring whether any word had come from his chum.
+
+"Mr. Benson is here, and I think you'll do well to get here as quickly
+as you can," replied Ridder.
+
+"Is there any word--" began Hal Hastings.
+
+Ting-ling-ling!  The 'phone bell rang, cutting off Hal.  The latter had
+received his orders, and his next concern was to obey them.  That was
+lesson number one in brisk Army discipline.
+
+Hal was on hand in five minutes.  While Jack was recounting to him the
+adventure with Millard, Eph Somers came in.  He stood in the background,
+listening, his jaw gradually dropping until his mouth was wide open.
+
+"You heard how Benson ran into the fellow?" asked Lieutenant Ridder,
+turning to Somers.
+
+"Yes," muttered Eph, disgustedly, "and I guess I have been enjoying
+the fool's part of the adventure!"
+
+"How so?" demanded the Army officer quickly.
+
+"I met that same woman, I'll bet a cookie," growled Eph,
+"and--and--I--"
+
+"Well, sir?" demanded Lieutenant Ridder, briskly.
+
+"I carried that bag for _her_--carried it nearly two blocks!"
+
+"What's that?" cried Jack Benson, leaping up.  "How--"
+
+"No; I don't believe, on second thought, that I'm the prize fool."
+
+"Come, come," directed Lieutenant Ridder.  "Talk up quickly, young man."
+
+"If you want to hear what I have to say," retorted Eph, with a slight
+flash of his eyes, "you'll have to wait until I get around to it."
+
+It was serving direct notice on Ridder that Army briskness wouldn't do
+in Eph's case.
+
+"Well, what have you to tell?" demanded the young lieutenant,
+impatiently.
+
+"I was on my way back here," Eph continued.  "Guess, maybe, I was eight
+blocks or so away from here.  I had been to the hotels that I agreed to
+visit, and--"
+
+"Why did you go to the hotel, anyway, after you knew Benson had sighted
+Millard?" broke in the Army officer.
+
+"Because it wasn't a sure thing that Jack had seen Millard.  He thought
+so, and so did we.  But, after we left him, the auto ran along slowly,
+and we heard no row behind, so we guessed that maybe Jack had been wrong
+in his guess.  At least, Hal and I figured it out that way.  So I went
+to the hotels on my list, just the same, and I guess you did, didn't
+you, Hal?"
+
+"Yes," nodded Hastings.
+
+"This isn't bringing us, very fast, to your latest adventure," complained
+young Ridder.
+
+"It's your fault, then," continued Eph, placidly.  "You asked a question,
+and I answered it."
+
+"Well, what about meeting the woman in a gray dress and veil?"
+
+"I met her," retorted Eph.
+
+"Could you see through the veil?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then how do you know it was Millard?"
+
+"I don't know," Eph rejoined.  "But there are mighty few women as tall
+as Millard.  Besides, this one had rather a long foot, and wore rubbers.
+I noticed that.  Huh!  This makes me feel like thirty tacks!"
+
+"How did you meet her--or him?" asked Ridder.
+
+"I was crossing a street, maybe eight blocks from here," Eph replied,
+"and I saw that tall woman, in gray, slip on the crossing.  There was
+a street car coming, and she gave a little yell.  I got to 'her' just
+in time to pull 'her' out of the way of the trolley and to set 'her'
+on 'her' feet again.  Then I picked up 'her' dress suit case.  It
+struck me that the one I supposed to be a woman was on the point of
+speaking to me when he--she--seemed to see my uniform and then get a
+look at my face.  Then the party, whether it was he or she, made signs
+to show that he, or she, was deaf and dumb.  The suit case was heavy,
+so I offered to tote it along, as I was headed the same way.  I thought
+it was the least I could do for a woman who had just had a great shock.
+If that was Millard--and I'd bet a torpedo boat it was--how he must
+have chuckled over the idea of having one of the submarine boys carry
+his bag for him."
+
+"How far did you go with this 'lady'?" asked the Lieutenant Ridder, with
+a faint touch of sarcasm.
+
+"Two blocks," replied Eph.
+
+"And you left her--"
+
+"At a cheap hotel where I can find her again.  And I guess it's up to
+us to start right away."
+
+"Yes," nodded Jack.  "And we can't start too soon."
+
+It may have occurred to Lieutenant Ridder that he wasn't exactly being
+consulted.  However, he saw that these submarine boys were used to
+acting swiftly, and he began to believe that they would work better
+if left to their own devices.  So he merely nodded, adding:
+
+"I'll wait here.  I'll hope to have a report before long."
+
+Eph led his two comrades back unerringly to the cheap hotel.  They went
+straight to the hotel desk, Jack asking, bluntly, whether any very
+tall woman, in gray, and carrying a dress suit ease, had registered
+there.
+
+"No," replied the clerk, very positively.
+
+Then they interviewed the porter.  He remembered the "woman" having
+stepped inside the hotel.  She readjusted her veil in the lobby near
+the doorway.
+
+"Then she went outside, spoke to a driver, got into his cab, and went
+away," continued the porter.
+
+"She spoke to the driver, did she?" Eph asked.
+
+"Of course, sir," retorted the porter.  "You didn't think she made signs,
+did you?"
+
+From their talk the submarine boys were satisfied that it was the same
+"woman" whom Eph had so gallantly assisted.  They were equally sure
+that this veiled "woman" in gray was none other than Millard.
+
+"Do you remember which driver it was whose cab she engaged?" Jack asked,
+turning to hand the porter a dollar.
+
+"Jack Medway's cab, sir," was the quick answer.  "And here it comes,
+now."
+
+The submarine boys hurried out, transferring their attention to Medway.
+
+"I'm just back from taking the lady," replied the driver, after Jack
+Benson had slipped him, also, a dollar bill.  "But say--was it a lady,
+or a joke?"
+
+"Why?" queried Jack Benson.
+
+"Well," replied the driver, "the voice was pitched high, but there was
+something peculiar about it.  I wondered, at the time, if it was a man
+rigged and togged out like a woman."
+
+"Where did she tell you to take her," Jack Benson wanted to know.
+
+"To Furnam Square!"
+
+"Did you take her to any address there?"
+
+"No; just to the square.  Then I waited to fill my pipe, and I saw the
+woman, if woman it was, walk across the square and get into another cab."
+
+"If you haven't anything else to do," hinted Jack, "suppose you take us
+to Furnam Square now."
+
+Within a very few minutes the three friends were gazing out of a cab
+window upon the square.  It looked like a very quiet residence section.
+
+"There was another cab here, you say, that took your last 'fare' from
+this square?" asked Jack.
+
+"Yes; there is a fellow who has a regular stand here.  It's his cab,"
+replied Medway.
+
+"Let us know, then, when that particular driver gets back here," begged
+Jack.  "We'll sit here in your rig and wait."
+
+Medway grinned.  Waiting, as well as driving, meant money for him.
+
+Fully an hour and a half dragged by.  Jack was beginning to wonder if
+it would not be better to give up this present clue to the chase, when
+Medway, leaning down from his box, called quietly.
+
+"That's the other fellow and his rig, coming back into the square now."
+
+"As soon as he stops," directed Benson, "drive us over alongside.  Don't
+say anything to him.  Let me do the talking."
+
+In a moment more Jack was out on the sidewalk, talking earnestly with
+the driver just returned.
+
+"You've had a long trip of it," guessed Jack, noting the warm condition
+of the horses.
+
+"You bet," nodded the other driver.
+
+"Just got back from taking the tall woman in gray somewhere."
+
+"Yep.  But do you call it 'somewhere'?  I'd call it most anywhere."
+
+"How far was it?" asked Jack.
+
+"What do you want to know for?" demanded the Jehu, looking with sudden
+sharpness at his questioner.
+
+"Because we'd like to go to the same place that you took the woman,"
+returned Benson, promptly.
+
+"Huh!  I took her for three dollars.  I wouldn't go over that trip
+again for less'n five."
+
+"We'll pay the five, and be glad to," proposed Jack Benson, displaying
+some money.  "More than that, if you play right fair with us, we'll put
+another five on top of the first, just as a little present to your
+horses."
+
+"You'd better use the young gentlemen right, Jim," advised Medway.
+"They're good fellows, and they pay well."
+
+"Why do you want to go where I took that last party?" questioned Jim,
+with a shrewd look.
+
+"One of the things that the second five-dollar note pays you for is
+asking no questions," retorted Jack.  "Do you want to take up our
+offer?"
+
+"Yes; if you'll give me fifteen minutes to rest and water the horses,"
+agreed Jim.
+
+"That'll be all right," nodded Jack.  "And now, Medway, have we paid
+you enough?"
+
+"Plenty," cheerfully responded the first driver, taking the hint and
+leaving.
+
+"Where did you take that woman?" questioned Jack, while the new driver
+got out a bucket for watering his horses.
+
+"Away down by the sea-coast.  Know where the Cobtown fishing shanties
+are?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Well, Cobtown is made up of three or four little villages of rickety
+old houses.  Some are occupied by fishermen, and some ain't.  There's
+three or four coves down that way fishing craft anchor in.  It's a
+lonely, wild bit of country, and some rough characters 'mong them
+fishermen."
+
+"Did you take your fare to any particular house or shanty down at
+Cobtown?"
+
+"Nope; she got out on the road, in sight o' Cobtown, an' walked along,
+toting her old grip."
+
+"What kind of a 'grip' was it?"
+
+"An old brownish suit case."
+
+"That's the one," nodded Eph.
+
+As the driver busied himself over his team, the submarine boys drew
+aside to talk over their new information.
+
+"I reckon we're going to be too late," grumbled Captain Jack.
+
+"What makes you think so?" Hal inquired.
+
+"Fishing villages, smacks and fishermen," answered Jack, gloomily.
+"Fishermen are a daring, reckless lot of fellows.  They'd take a craft
+anywhere, in any kind of weather, for money enough.  Fellows, I'm
+afraid Millard has hired a smack and started up or down the coast."
+
+"Then we've got a craft that can chase any smack on the Atlantic
+coast," declared.  Eph, stoutly.
+
+"Of course; if we knew which craft to overhaul, and had the authority
+to do it."
+
+"Authority?  Then what's the matter with the people at the Fort?"
+demanded Eph.
+
+"Their authority runs only on the land.  Besides, by the time we got
+through the red tape, and got started, any smart smack, in a good wind,
+would be forty miles the other side of the horizon."
+
+"Are you going to take this long drive, then?" asked Hal Hastings,
+rather dubiously.
+
+"Yes," declared Jack Benson, promptly.  "Hal, old fellow, any trail is
+best where it's freshest."
+
+"I reckon you can git in, now, gents, if ye want," called the driver.
+
+Seated in the cab the submarine boys set out to meet whatever might
+be before them in Cobtown.  Had they possessed the gift of prophecy--
+
+However, none of us possess that!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+JACK PLAYS WITH A VOLCANO
+
+
+After something more than an hour's drive the Jehu pulled his horses up,
+got down from the box and opened one of the doors.
+
+"Here you are, young gents.  This is the spot where I put the last fare
+down.  An' now you know as much about her whereabouts as I do."
+
+The district into which the submarine boys had come was well outside of
+the city, and in a different direction from Craven's Bay and the Fort.
+
+It was bleak and wild here.  Even the shanties of the three little
+villages, with their fish-sheds, their racks with nets spread, the
+rickety wharves--all looked dismal.  It seemed as though here must be
+one of the spots where only a scanty living is earned and only by the
+hardest kind of work.
+
+"Well, we're much obliged to you, driver, and here's the money promised
+to you."
+
+"Obliged to you, gents.  Will you want to be going back with me?"
+
+"No," Captain Jack answered.  "I reckon we're going to be moored here
+for a while."
+
+"Now, whereaway?  What's the course?" demanded Eph Somers.
+
+Benson glanced at his watch, then up at the sun.
+
+"It'll be dark in about an hour and half," he muttered.  "Why not wait
+until dark?  We can't have been seen from any of the villages yet.
+Looking out over the water you don't see a craft of any sort headed
+away from here.  From this point, looking down, we can see if any of the
+boats in port get ready to put out.  So Millard, if he hasn't already
+escaped, can't get away by sea without our knowing it.  If he tries to
+get away by land, we're right where we can see him coming."
+
+"Then you think we'd better wait here, keeping out of sight, until
+dark?" asked Hal.
+
+"Most decidedly.  Don't you?"
+
+"Yes," nodded Hal.
+
+"But it'll be a mighty tedious wait," growled Eph, the impatient one.
+
+"Well, youngster, we're not here to consult our own comfort," retorted
+Captain Jack.  "There's something higher to consult--the best interests
+of our country."
+
+"Oh, if you put it that way!" grumbled Eph, much mollified.
+
+The submarine boys had stepped into a little hollow, just off the road,
+and barely below a rise in the ground.  There were trees and bushes
+about to aid them in concealing themselves.  If they saw anyone coming
+their way they could easily find better hiding.
+
+No one came, however.  Dark found the boys desperately hungry.
+
+"Of course we didn't think to bring anything to eat," uttered Eph,
+disgustedly.  "What are we going to do about it?"
+
+"We've got to each of us take a village, presently, enter it and search,"
+replied Captain Jack.  "With only one of us to each village, it will be
+tough luck if each one can't find some one who has enough food to sell
+a little of it."
+
+"How soon are we going to start?" asked Eph, hopefully.
+
+"Well, supper time will be the best time to go through the villages,"
+decided the young submarine skipper "If Millard has taken refuge with
+anyone who lives in one of these villages, he'll be more likely to show
+himself at supper time than at any other."
+
+"It won't take long to look into each of the houses," muttered Hal.
+"There aren't many in any one of the villages."
+
+"If we don't espy our man at table," Captain Jack went on, "we'll have
+to try other means of finding him out.  You two will know what to do
+when you're on the ground.  If Millard is anywhere in the village that
+you go to look through, don't fail to find him--that's all."
+
+Jack chose, for himself, the northernmost village.  Hal took the next
+one, and Eph the southernmost.
+
+"Now, remember, fellows," breathed Benson, sharply, as they parted,
+"the one great thing is not to fail!"
+
+The night was dark and the sky overcast as the submarine boys parted to
+go their several ways.
+
+"I think I can understand how Eph feels about his stomach," grimaced
+Jack, as he strode along.  "I don't believe I'd balk, just now, at the
+plainest food ever cooked.  Why, I haven't eaten since this morning!"
+
+The evening being rather warm, most of the houses, as Jack neared the
+village, proved to have open windows.  Lights shone, and the fishermen
+and their families could be seen at table.
+
+No one appeared in the street, at first.  Jack strolled down the
+principal street, looking into each house without much difficulty.  Yet
+the one face that he sought was not visible.
+
+Down at the further end of the street Benson came upon a
+tumble-down-looking grocery store.
+
+"What kind of sandwiches can you put me up?" queried the submarine
+boy, casually.
+
+"Stranger, eh?" asked the man behind the counter, staring curiously.
+
+"Yes; haven't you had any other strangers here lately?"
+
+"Not as I knows on," replied the man, a shaggy, unkempt-looking fellow
+of forty.
+
+"None here to-day, eh?" asked Jack, taking out a half-dollar and toying
+with it on the counter.
+
+"Don't remember anybody very special," replied the storekeeper.
+
+"You haven't answered me about the kinds of sandwiches you can put up,"
+Jack reminded him.
+
+"Not very fancy in that line, young feller.  Cheese, or sardines;
+that's all."
+
+"Give me three of each, then," begged Jack.  He seized the first sandwich
+that was prepared and began to eat it.
+
+"Hungry, eh!" asked the storekeeper.
+
+"Yes," Jack admitted; "for want of anything better to do."
+
+"Foller the sea, don't ye?"
+
+"Depends," muttered Jack, his mouth half full of sandwich.  "When I'm
+going before a brisk fair wind, sometimes the sea follows me."
+
+"'Spose so," grinned the storekeeper, passing over the second sandwich.
+After that, the fellow got in slightly ahead of the submarine boy's
+appetite, though Benson finished the whole meal in a few minutes.
+
+"Now, if you've got a bottle of soda water, to wash that all down with,"
+hinted Benson.  It was forthcoming, also a smoky-looking glass.
+
+"So you haven't had any strangers here lately," hinted Captain Jack.
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Any craft been fitting out to sail to-night or first thing in the
+morning?"
+
+"Nope."
+
+"Gracious, but this is a dead place," laughed Jack.  "Must be a lot of
+shacks for rent around here?"
+
+"There was one place," stated the storekeeper, "but a dude feller hired
+it last week.  Said some sort o' fishing club'd be down this way to
+fish, once in a while.  That kinder minds me," went on the storekeeper.
+"I guess maybe some o' that crowd are down, 'cause I saw a light up
+there at the house, jest come dark."
+
+"If there's a fishing club down here, that ought to make business good
+for you," suggested Captain Jack.
+
+"Dunno.  They can start tradin' as soon as they like.  I'm ready."
+
+"Which house has the fishing club hired?" was Jack's next question.
+
+"Why, I guess you can make it out from the door," replied the
+storekeeper, coming out from behind the counter and going to the front
+of his establishment.  "There, if yer eyes are good, you can jest make
+out a building over there on the point.  See it?  Well, there's a little
+boat wharf in front that ye can't see until you get closer."
+
+Jack had found out just what he wanted to know.  He had the very
+information for which he had been fishing, nor did he believe the
+storekeeper suspected him of undue curiosity.
+
+"Well, I've got to be moving along, now I'm fed," announced young Benson.
+"The yacht I belong to is some distance from here.  Good night!"
+
+Nor did Captain Jack linger in the village.  Had anyone stood still in
+that street and stared after Benson, he would have seen the boy vanish
+in the darkness.
+
+Captain Jack, however, had not disappeared from the scene.  He was
+merely shifting to the part of it that interested him most.  Cautiously
+he stole out along the further side of a ridge of land, toward the
+rickety old house on the point.
+
+"Not a sign of a light, now," breathed the submarine boy.  "If Millard
+was really there, I hope he hasn't had time to get away for good."
+
+All was silent and dark about the old house, as Captain Jack stole
+closer.  At nearer range he made the circuit of the house, only to
+find every window shuttered, and the place as dismal as the grave.
+
+"I'm afraid the game has escaped," muttered Benson, with a sinking
+feeling at his heart.  "Yet he didn't escape, by sea or land, while we
+were watching outside the village.  And it was just at dark that the
+storekeeper saw a light here.  I wonder if it would be easy to--"
+
+Right there Jack Benson's train of thought broke off.  From the opposite
+side of the house came a sound exactly like that of the opening and
+closing of a door.
+
+"Can that be our man coming out?" wondered Skipper Jack.
+
+He started cautiously around the house, but soon drew back around the
+corner of the building.  Dropping to the ground, and lying flat, the
+submarine boy allowed only the top of his head to show as he peeped.
+
+Glory!  Jack knew, well enough, that tall figure striding off into the
+gloom.  It was Millard, and under his left arm the fellow carried a
+large package that might be a bulky portfolio well wrapped.
+
+"He has his drawings--his maps of American fortifications and fortified
+harbors--the very stuff that we want to get!" throbbed the boy.  "And
+now--we're going to get them!"
+
+Keeping Millard's receding figure zealously in sight, Jack, crouching
+low, started after the long-legged one as soon as the distance between
+seemed sufficient to keep Millard from guessing at pursuit.
+
+"Oh, how I wish Hal and Eph were here!" muttered Captain Jack, in keen
+disappointment.
+
+"I need help on this!"
+
+Within two minutes Millard had struck into a well-beaten path that led
+northward over succeeding ridges of laud.  In a way, it was easier
+following here, for there were occasional trees and clumps of bushes
+behind which the young shadow could drop at need.
+
+Two minutes in this path, and Jack Benson's heart gave another quick
+leap.  Some one else was coming stealthily behind him.  Jack dodged
+around a clump of bushes and waited.
+
+"Hal!" breathed Jack, almost wild with joy, as the two chums clasped
+hands fervently for one brief instant.  Then:
+
+"See here, Hal, I've got to dart forward again, or Millard will be out
+of sight.  But I'll tell you what--while I trail Millard, you concern
+yourself only with following me."
+
+"Good enough," whispered Hastings, nodding.  "Now, you start again!"
+
+For just an instant Millard had disappeared.  However, by moving forward
+quickly, Benson was soon able to make out the quarry through the
+darkness.
+
+For some five minutes more the chase continued.  Then, his long body
+rather sharply defined against the sky, Millard began the ascent of a
+low hill that ended in a cliff overlooking the broad ocean.
+
+As Millard's course forward could end only in the sea, Jack now crouched
+low, stealing along a parallel course behind a low ridge of rock.
+
+Then Millard suddenly stepped into a clump of tall bushes.  Though his
+game was now out of sight, Jack did not lose his nerve, for he could
+hear the fellow.
+
+Spink!  spank!  clank!  The noise came from a shovel, vigorously used.
+
+"Not a hard one to guess," throbbed Captain Jack Benson, exultantly.
+"He has brought his maps and his stolen records with him, and is
+burying them in this lonely spot until some other time when he'll feel
+safe about coming back for them.  Talk about luck!  Why, Hal and I can
+pounce on this fellow, when he comes out over yonder, and, after we get
+him, we can next dig up whatever it is that this foreign agent thinks
+is worth burying!"
+
+Then, with a shade of curiosity, Benson added to himself:
+
+"I don't know, yet, how it happened that Hal was on my trail.  There
+wasn't time for him to tell me."
+
+Clank!  clank!  But after a while the noise of the shovel ceased for a
+while.  Captain Jack craned his neck eagerly, trying to pierce the
+darkness of the night.  He could make out nothing, though he heard
+some one still moving inside the clump of bushes.
+
+Then again the noise of the shovel on the dirt was heard.
+
+"He's filling in, now, beyond a doubt," thought Captain Jack.  "He is
+burying--what?  The maps and records?  Hiding them here that he may
+dig them up at some later date?"
+
+Benson chuckled noiselessly.
+
+"If that's Millard's game I reckon some one else will do some digging
+over yonder before he pays this place a second visit!"
+
+Ah, the noise had stopped, at last.  Now, Millard came out of the
+thicket.
+
+"He hasn't that bundle he brought up here!" throbbed Jack Benson.  "And
+he isn't bringing a shovel out, either, so it must be hidden right handy.
+Great!"
+
+Mr. Millard could depart, now, if he wanted.  Jack trusted to his chum,
+prowling somewhere about, to have the good judgment to follow the
+long-legged fellow away.  As for Benson, he didn't mean to do another
+thing until he had found the shovel, and had determined just what had
+been so carefully buried on this dark night!
+
+So Jack watched, rather indifferently, as Millard slunk off into the
+darkness.  After three minutes or so had passed, Jack rose and ran
+straight for the thicket.
+
+There it was--new ground, that had just been turned over with a shovel.
+There was no mound, but the fresh earth showed just where to dig.
+
+"Oh, this is as easy as making change for a blind man!" chuckled the
+young submarine skipper, rubbing his hands ecstatically.
+
+What about the shovel?  Jack turned to feel around in the darkness.
+Really, Millard couldn't be such a very clever fellow!  Jack had no
+difficulty in finding the shovel.  Its handle was sticking out from
+under a mass of dead brush.
+
+Jack Benson drew out the implement, brandishing it.
+
+"Hal had the good sense to shadow that chap away," decided the young
+skipper.  "Otherwise, he'd have been here by this time.  Good
+haul--rascal and records in the same night.  For, if Hal goes on
+Millard's trail, then Millard is pretty sure to be a prisoner before
+the night is over. Oh, I wish Eph would turn up."
+
+Then Jack took a good grip on the shovel.  Clank!  spink!  spink!
+
+Having been so recently moved, this dirt was easy to dig.
+
+Yet, suddenly, there came a new note on the night air.
+
+"Jack, O Jack!" sounded in Hal's frantic tones.  "Quick!"
+
+"Eh?" called Captain Benson. "What's the row?  Come here and see what I
+can show you!"
+
+"No!  You come here--quick!"
+
+"That's queer," pondered Jack Benson, leaning on his shovel, trying to
+understand what it could all mean.
+
+Then he heard, even at the distance, the sound of Hal Hastings panting,
+as though engaged in hard physical effort.
+
+Again rose Hastings's frantic voice, though somewhat muffled in its
+sound.
+
+"If you don't hustle, it will be too late!"
+
+Jack dropped the shovel on the ground, wheeled, and ran down the slope
+to where Hal's voice sounded.
+
+"I'm coming, old fellow!" quivered the submarine skipper, starting to
+run.
+
+Boom!  A terrific explosion shook the ground.  The air seemed full of
+flying fragments of rock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"MR. GRAY" MAKES NEW TROUBLE
+
+
+Had Jack Benson started down the slope two or three seconds later he
+must have been killed.
+
+As it was, the fearful force of concussion sent him sprawling headlong
+on the ground.
+
+A shower of small fragments of rock and of loose dirt fell about him.
+
+Yet Jack was up again, like a flash, never stopping to inquire whether
+he had been hurt.
+
+"O-oh!" came the groan, from Hal Hastings.
+
+"There, in a second!" panted Captain Jack, beginning to run again.
+
+A blow sounded, then a fall.
+
+Captain Jack raced into a little, bush-lined hollow, just in time to
+see Millard leap up and take to his heels.
+
+Hal Hastings lay on the ground, as though badly hurt.
+
+"Oh, you would, would you?" raged Captain Jack Benson, making a swift
+spurt after Millard.
+
+He caught the long-legged one, too, by the back of the fellow's coat
+collar.
+
+Yank!  Millard was pulled over backward.  Down he went, Benson piling
+a-top of him.
+
+"Down!" cried Skipper Jack, exultantly.  He found, however, that Millard
+possessed strength enough to put up a stiff fight.
+
+"Come on, Hal--if you can!" called Jack Benson, sharply.
+
+"Can't--just yet," came, in muffled tones, from the usually prompt Hal
+Hastings.
+
+"Let go, you young hound!" ordered Millard, striking out savagely.
+
+Jack hung desperately.  Yet the trouble was that the young submarine
+skipper had tackled a man who was at least fifty per cent. stronger
+and fully as agile.
+
+While Hal still hung back, Millard gave a heave, then rolled himself
+over on top of Jack Benson.
+
+"I'll give you just a short lesson!" snarled the long-legged one.
+
+He raised a fist, intent on bringing it down like a sledge-hammer
+across Benson's face.
+
+That blow, however, wasn't the one that landed.  Biff! whack!  Two
+sturdy, hard fists registered on Millard's head from behind.  Then a
+boy shot himself forward, battering-ram fashion, hurling Millard over
+to the ground. The boy went with the fellow, landing on top of him.
+
+And that boy was Eph Somers!
+
+"Come on, Jack, if you want some of this!" offered Eph, generously.
+
+Truth to tell, there was need of both the submarine boys, for Millard
+now fought more fiendishly than before.
+
+Millard was a powerful fellow, when aroused, but he had pitted against
+him two of the doughtiest, gamest boys to be found along the Atlantic
+coast.  He was pretty well beaten up, in fact, by the time that Hal came
+limply upon the scene.
+
+"Want any help?" demanded Hal, in a still somewhat breathless voice.
+
+"Nope!" answered Eph, sturdily.  "Not unless you want exercise."
+
+As Somers spoke he landed another blow, this against the "wind" at
+Millard's belt-line.  In the same instant Jack Benson managed to knot
+his hands in the fellow's coat lapels, and to press the backs of his
+hands against the wretch's throat.
+
+"I sur--ug-g-gh!--er--render," gurgled the long-legged one, weakly.
+
+"You'd better, unless you want to discover that we haven't yet started
+in with rough handling," retorted Eph valiantly.
+
+Young Benson eased his hold on Millard's wind-pipe.  Yet all three of
+the submarine boys watched their prisoner, cat-like, for any new
+outbreak.
+
+"Now, roll over on your face, if you want us to believe you're going to
+be good," ordered Jack.
+
+Though he swore, under his breath, Millard obeyed.  Then something
+flashed in the night--handcuffs that Jack had brought away from his
+meeting with Lieutenant Ridder at the hotel.
+
+Click!  The steel band snapped into place around Millard's right wrist.
+
+"Hold on--not that!" protested the prisoner, hoarsely.
+
+"Yes; even that!" mocked Eph, picking up a fragment of rock.  "And keep
+quiet, unless you want me to batter your head in!"
+
+It was this rough, vigorous sea-talk, backed by a belief that young
+Somers would prove equal to his threat, no doubt, that made Millard
+allow his left wrist to be brought over to meet the right.
+
+"You've got those things on too tight," complained Millard, sullenly.
+
+"No-o-o, I don't think so," retorted Captain Jack, after looking.  "We
+need 'em as tight as we can have 'em, without causing pain, when we
+have a fellow like you to deal with.  Now, what was that explosion?"
+
+"Wait a second!" broke in Eph, in a low voice.  "Millard had a pal here.
+It was the pal I shadowed here.  And that pal is running, now, with a
+fair-sized bundle that he came here to get."
+
+"He was running when you jumped into this business?" demanded Benson.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then the pal is too far away, by this time, for us to catch him by
+running after him," decided Skipper Jack.  "Now, about that explosion!"
+
+"This wretch had a mine planted up on the hill," explained Hal Hastings.
+"I was watching, at the rear, you know, and it happened that I stopped
+right close to the hollow where you found me.  Then I saw Millard drop
+into that hollow, and I took a look-in.  I was just in time to see him
+bending over to reach for the handle of a magneto battery.  Now, I
+happened to know that magneto batteries are made for the purpose of
+touching off explosives at a safe distance.  So I jumped in on him.
+Just at that second I heard you, Jack, old fellow, striking with the
+shovel up above there.  I had to guess fast, so the whole thing
+struck me like a flash.  Millard had been digging, up there, just to
+lead on anyone who might be shadowing him.  While you were bent over
+the spot where he had been digging, he meant to touch off a mine that
+must have been planted and laid days ago.  Millard, you rascal, if you
+suspected that you were being watched, it was your idea to lead the
+shadow out here, get him over that mine and touch it off!"
+
+The prisoner's eyes flashed.
+
+"That was your game, wasn't it?" demanded Benson, angrily.
+
+"Find out, if you can," growled the prisoner.
+
+"You've guessed it, Hal," nodded Jack, then shuddered.  "Had I followed
+this villain out here alone, and then gone to digging, unwarned, where
+I had seen him digging, my remains would have come down in four counties.
+But, you mean scoundrel, you never happened to think that you'd be
+trailed by three different fellows, all at different points along your
+trail."
+
+"This is where my account comes in," interposed Eph Somers.  "You
+remember the village you sent me to, Jack?  Well, all I could find out
+was that, a few days ago, a chap named Gray had come along and hired a
+little schooner that's about twice as fast as any other sailing craft
+in these parts.  He hired two fishermen to sail it for him--when he
+got ready.  His crew have been wondering, since, when he'd be ready.
+Since he made the deal, Gray has just been hanging around and doing
+nothing."
+
+"My informant pointed out Gray to me.  Right after that, I vanished.
+But I kept an eye on Gray.  When he left the village, so did I.  The
+trail led up here.  Gray went to a pile of dead brush that had been
+heaped up.  He prowled under the brush, brought out a wooden box that
+had been hidden there, and, from the box, took a bundle.  He started
+off with it.  I figured that bundle was what we wanted.  I didn't want
+to take the chance of tackling him and having him get the best of me,
+so I started to follow.  Just then I heard the rumpus up here.  Maybe
+I did wrong, but I figured we could get Gray again, so I hustled up
+here to help."
+
+"This wretch, Millard, and I had a pretty rough-and-tumble time of it,"
+Hal broke in.  "At last, though, he gave me a blow in the wind that put
+me right down and out, for a little while.  Then he got the handle of
+the magneto and pumped it."
+
+"Glad I started down the slope just when I did," nodded Skipper Jack,
+dryly.  "If I hadn't--well, what's the use of talking about it?"
+
+Forcing Millard to get upon his feet, the boys inspected, first the
+magneto battery, to which was attached wire buried in the ground.
+Then up the slope they went, to find a miniature crater, some ten feet
+deep and at least fourteen feet across, where the mine had been
+exploded.
+
+"Say, it's hard, even yet, to understand why I wasn't killed," muttered
+Jack Benson.  "But here we are, standing here, thinking about ourselves,
+when that fellow, Gray, is getting away with a package that we ought to
+have.  Come along, fellows!  And you, Millard, if you try to bold back
+on us, you'll learn some new things in the way of discomfort!"
+
+Thus warned, and realizing that his determined young captors were in
+a savage frame of mind, the long-legged one didn't try to lag.  All
+four appeared in the village in which Eph had prowled for information.
+The appearance of the handcuffed prisoner stirred up a lot of curiosity.
+Eph, however, showed his written authorization for taking Millard in
+the name of the United States government, so no one offered the captive
+any aid or sympathy.
+
+But the submarine boys met with disturbing news.  They heard that a
+little more than a half an hour before, Gray, still carrying a big
+package, had embarked on his chartered schooner, and had put to sea.
+
+"Had we better charter something and go in chase?" wondered Hal.
+
+"What's the use?" demanded one of the fishermen.  "The 'Juanita' is
+four miles or more out to sea, by this time, and the night's dark you
+couldn't see her.  And there's no craft hereabouts fast enough to catch
+the 'Juanita.'"
+
+"Besides," whispered Jack, in his chum's ear, "we have no power to
+overhaul a craft at sea."
+
+So, making the best of the situation, the submarine boys hired a driver,
+horse and wagon at the village, and started on their return to town.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+FACING THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
+
+
+Jack was the first to enter Lieutenant Ridder's room at the hotel.  The
+young engineer officer jumped up out of his chair, looking somewhat
+angry.
+
+"Look here, Benson," expostulated the lieutenant, "what sort of way is
+this to use me?  Here I've been loafing about here for hours, and you
+haven't sent or brought me word of any kind.  You--"
+
+"We've brought you something better," smiled Jack Benson, throwing the
+door further open.  "Here is Millard, himself."
+
+Millard came in, a policeman at his side, for the submarine boys had
+hailed the first policeman they met inside the city limits, and had
+explained to him.
+
+"This man is wanted as a United States prisoner, is he, sir?" inquired
+the policeman.
+
+"Yes, if his name is Millard," replied Lieutenant Ridder.
+
+"Oh, this is Millard, all right," confirmed Jack Benson.
+
+"Then shall I leave the fellow with you, sir?" inquired the policeman.
+
+"Yes, of course; and thank you."
+
+"You'll give me a receipt for the fellow, as a United States prisoner?"
+hinted the policeman.
+
+"As a United States suspect," corrected Lieutenant Ridder, going to a
+table on which were writing materials.  The policeman was handed the
+desired document, then withdrew.  Then Ridder went to a telephone,
+calling up Major Woodruff.
+
+"The major will be here in about ten minutes," announced Ridder, hanging
+up the receiver.  "In the meantime we will do no talking in the presence
+of this suspect."
+
+It was just a little less than ten minutes later when Major Woodruff,
+accompanied by a corporal and two private soldiers, entered the room.
+
+Millard was at once taken away, under guard.
+
+Then the boys told their stories, quickly, comprehensively.
+
+"I'll have to get a clear wire all the way through to Washington,"
+declared Major Woodruff, promptly, going to the telephone.  In a minute
+more he had arranged matters, and hurried to the table to write his
+despatch.  Ere the major had finished writing a messenger boy was at
+the door.
+
+"Boy, you'll find my automobile at the hotel entrance," stated Major
+Woodruff.  "Give this card to my chauffeur, and he'll take you on the
+jump to the telegraph office.  Then come back in the automobile, and
+wait for more work."
+
+"Do you expect anyone in Washington to get that message now, after ten
+o'clock at night?" Jack asked, wonderingly.
+
+"To-night?" repeated Major Woodruff.  "Yes, sir!  You haven't much idea,
+I take it, Mr. Benson, how fast government business travels.  Within
+five minutes the first part of my message will be ticking out on a
+receiver in the War Department.  The Army officer in charge will get
+the Secretary of War over the telephone.  Why, my answer will very
+likely be here inside of twenty minutes!"
+
+It was thirty minutes, exactly, when a messenger placed a telegram in
+Major Woodruff's hands.  As soon as the messenger had gone outside,
+the major read this telegram.
+
+_"Keep prisoner Millard close confinement pending further orders.
+Have communicated Secretary of Navy.  Latter official says sea chase
+shall be made to catch fellow Gray on 'Juanita.' If submarine boys
+will accept sea service, briefly, for Navy Department, have them come
+to-night's train and report Secretary Navy at nine to-morrow morning.
+Their expenses borne by government."    (Signed) "Secretary of War."_
+
+"What does that mean, sir," cried Jack Benson, rising, "about _if_ we
+will accept sea service, and reporting in the morning to the Secretary
+of the Navy at Washington?"
+
+"Why, I belong to the Army," replied Major Woodruff, hauling out his
+watch, "and this is a Navy matter.  However, since one of you youngsters
+knows Gray by sight, and you're all of you familiar with this business,
+I imagine the Secretary of the Navy wants to put you out to sea on one
+of the country's gunboats, to aid in the chase.  For any real
+information, however, you'll have to apply in person to the Secretary
+of the Navy himself.  Are you going to Washington?"
+
+"Are we going--" Jack started to repeat, with mild irony, when a
+knock at the door interrupted him.  Major Woodruff opened the door,
+to receive another telegram.
+
+"Washington wakes up quickly," he laughed.  "Here you are, Mr. Benson--a
+despatch from our other fighting department at the Nation's capital."
+
+Clearing his throat, Major Woodruff read:
+
+_"Send description of schooner 'Juanita,' and of suspect, Gray, as
+mentioned in your telegram Secretary War.  Are submarine boys leaving
+to-night to report in morning?  Secretary of Navy."_
+
+"Here you are, and you see you've got to make up your minds quickly,"
+said the major.  "The night train south for Washington leaves in a
+little more than an hour from now."
+
+"Why, there's only one answer possible, sir," cried Captain Jack Benson,
+his eyes shining.  "Of course we'll take to-night's train and report to
+the Secretary of the Navy in the morning.  When it's for the Flag I
+don't even have to consult my comrades, or look their way.  I know
+their answer as well as I know my own."
+
+"Good enough, young man," applauded Major Woodruff, while Lieutenant
+Ridder gave Jack a hearty slap across the shoulders.  "But, to go to
+the Navy Department, you'll want citizen's clothes--not your present
+uniforms, which are not official.  I can send my auto to your boat, and
+you can be back here in forty minutes, if you dress quickly."
+
+"Ready for the word, 'forward,' sir," responded Captain Jack, saluting.
+Hal and Eph also raised their hands to their foreheads.
+
+It was a swift trip, with some hurried dressing on board the "Spitfire,"
+but Major Woodruff landed them at the railway station ten minutes ahead
+of train time.
+
+"Good fortune, gentlemen," wished Major Woodruff, pressing the hand of
+each when the train was ready.  "Don't be scared when you find
+yourselves face to face with so big a man as the Secretary."
+
+It is not to be wondered at if the minds of all were in a bit of a whirl
+as they made for their berths in a sleeping-car.
+
+"After all," muttered Jack, to himself, as he undressed in his berth,
+"it's strange how some fellows get the cream of things.  Here we get
+the trip to Washington, while Lieutenant Ridder will have only the fun
+of going out to the cliff above Cobtown to-morrow to have a look at
+what is left of Millard's mine."
+
+Their train brought the submarine boys into Washington just before seven
+in the morning.  There was time for a good breakfast.  Then, being
+strangers at the national capital, the youngsters engaged a cab to take
+them to the imposing building that shelters the State, War and Navy
+Departments.
+
+Jack Benson sent in his card.  Five minutes later the three submarine
+boys were ushered into the presence of the Secretary of the Navy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+NAVY OFFICERS FOR AN HOUR OR A DAY
+
+
+"So you're really the three famous submarine boys?" inquired Secretary
+Sanders, rising from his chair and extending his hand.
+
+"We're submarine boys; that's all I ever heard about it, Mr. Secretary,"
+replied Captain Jack, as he introduced his friends.
+
+"Now, be seated, young gentlemen, and tell me all you know about this
+matter that has brought you over to Washington."
+
+Jack Benson acted as spokesman, telling the whole tale clearly, yet
+using up no more time in talk than was absolutely necessary.  It was a
+good, concise, business statement.
+
+"Now, of course," pursued Mr. Sanders, "you wonder what the Navy
+Department wants you to do.  Well, in the first place, we've been
+asking, by wireless, through the night and early morning, to have all
+craft on the lookout for a schooner answering to the description of the
+'Juanita'."
+
+Secretary Sanders paused, but none of the three boys asked any questions.
+
+"You will wonder, of course, what success we've had so far, and I may
+say that our success has been ample," resumed the Secretary of the Navy,
+with an amused smile.  "In other words, we've been able to pick up news
+of three schooners, all of which answer to the general description of
+the 'Juanita'--but it happens that that isn't the name of any one of
+the three."
+
+Jack Benson nodded, but did not speak.
+
+"Of course," pursued the Secretary, "it may be that the skipper of the
+'Juanita' has tried an old trick, through the night.  He may have set
+a man to painting another name at the schooner's stern."
+
+Again Skipper Jack nodded.
+
+"The schooner that we think most likely to be the 'Juanita' is about
+fifty miles out at sea, now, according to a report received twenty
+minutes ago.  Evidently she is headed for one of the British West
+Indies.  Now, if the wind continues the same, and the suspected vessel
+keeps to her present course, she will, at five this afternoon, be off
+the Norfolk Navy Yard, and some sixty-two miles out at sea.  Now,
+unless we are otherwise advised, we want a gunboat, the 'Sudbury,' now
+at Norfolk, to overhaul the suspected schooner and ascertain whether she
+is really the 'Juanita,' and whether the man, Gray, and his bundle of
+documents are still on board.  The suspected vessel is to be searched,
+and Gray and the documents, if found, are to be seized, and the schooner
+then released.  Do you understand?"
+
+"Perfectly, sir." Jack answered quietly.
+
+"One of you young men will know Gray at a glance.  The other two are
+familiar with the whole case.  Otherwise, it would not have been
+necessary to have called you into this matter.  Yet, to overhaul a
+vessel, or to make an arrest or a seizure, you require authority.  Such
+authority can be vested only in naval officers.  Hence, for the present,
+it will be necessary to give all three of you appointments as officers
+in the United States Navy."
+
+At this announcement Jack Benson lost, for the moment, some of his
+cool composure.
+
+"Officers of the Navy, sir!" he gasped, but his eyes glowed at the mere
+thought.
+
+"You will be officers only temporarily," returned the Secretary.  "You
+are not of age, any of you, I take it."
+
+"We are all just about the same age, sir--seventeen, nearly eighteen,"
+Jack replied.
+
+"Just so.  Now, none of you could legally bold officers' commissions,
+except by a special act of Congress.  However, with the approval of the
+President, it is legal for me to give you special, temporary appointments
+under which you have the title, rank, pay and command of officers.  These
+appointments I am going to give and, for a brief while, though you will
+not have commissions, you will nevertheless be as actually officers of
+the Navy as are any admirals on the list."
+
+This astonishing statement almost took away the breath of the submarine
+boys.
+
+"You are familiar with navigation, Benson, and are a capable enough
+sea-pilot along this coast.  I learned that much, early this morning,
+through Mr. Farnum's answer to my telegram."
+
+"Then Mr. Farnum knows what we are going to do?" asked Jack, quickly.
+
+"He doesn't," replied Secretary Sanders, with a shake of his head.
+"Mr. Farnum knows, only, that you have a chance to be of some service
+to the Navy.  He seemed to be much pleased by our inquiry."
+
+The Secretary had just touched an electric button on his desk.  Now a
+clerk entered the room.
+
+"Telephone the secretary of the President," directed Mr. Sanders, "and
+ask him whether the President has examined and approved the special
+appointments that I sent over a while ago."
+
+The clerk was quickly back, to say:
+
+"The special appointments, Mr. Secretary, are duly approved, and are
+now on their way over from the White House."
+
+Two minutes later, a messenger entered, handing a sealed envelope to
+the Secretary of the Navy.
+
+Breaking the seal, Mr. Sanders drew forth three heavy, folded sheets
+of parchment.
+
+"Here you are, Mr. Benson," resumed the Secretary, handing over one of
+the parchments.  "This document confers upon you, for the time being,
+the rank, pay and command of a lieutenant, junior grade, in the
+United States Navy.  You, Mr. Hastings, and you, Mr. Somers, will rank
+as ensigns under your special appointments."
+
+Jack's head swam a bit as he thanked Mr. Sanders; then he started to
+glance over this marvelous document.
+
+But the Secretary of the Navy now cut in, briskly:
+
+"That is all, gentlemen.  You know your instructions, in general,
+Lieutenant Benson.  You will now go to my chief clerk, who will swear
+you into the service.  He will also give you an order on a local tailor
+for the uniforms of your ranks.  In one hour and twenty minutes your
+train starts south.  On arrival at Norfolk you will report without an
+instant's delay at the Navy Yard.  Aboard the 'Sudbury' you will
+receive all further instructions, wired from this Department.  Good
+morning, gentlemen."
+
+Then, indeed, things moved fast.  At the desk of the chief clerk of
+the Navy Department the three budding naval officers stood with their
+right hands raised while the official at the other side of the desk
+administered to them the oath binding them to loyalty to the government
+and to obedience to all lawful orders of their superiors.
+
+"And now, gentlemen," continued the chief clerk, "I will send for
+Ensign McGrath, who is on duty here, and present you to him.  He will
+go with you to the tailor's, and will see that you are properly rushed
+to the train that you are to take.  Remember, you are not to pay for
+your uniforms or equipment.  The bill will be sent here."
+
+Ensign McGrath looked sleepy, but proved to be a hustler.  One of the
+Department's autos was out in the grounds, and into this McGrath
+bundled the three submarine boys.  Five minutes later they were in the
+tailoring establishment, where a good many ready-made uniforms were
+kept for sale.
+
+What a whirl it was.  Yet, in twenty minutes, each submarine boy found
+himself in the duty uniform of a United States junior naval officer,
+each uniform adorned with the insignia of the wearer's rank.  In the
+meantime, dress-suit cases had been procured from a store near by.
+
+"All right and proper," nodded Ensign McGrath.  "And--I'm not throwing
+bouquets, gentlemen, but you really look as though you had been born
+for the uniforms.  Now, only one thing is missing--the swords."
+
+"Are we to wear swords?" asked Jack, his face flushing with pleasure.
+
+"Under certain conditions, on duty, naval officers wear swords.  You
+will need them as parts of your equipments."
+
+The dealer brought these side-arms at once.  The naval sword is a
+handsome one, vastly more natty than the infantry side-arm of a junior
+officer.
+
+What a thrill each submarine boy felt as he was shown how to adjust his
+sword to the belt!
+
+"They're really nonsensical jewelry in these civilized days," declared
+Ensign McGrath, dryly.  "But the regulations call for swords at some
+times.  Now, gentlemen, you will need to get your uniforms off as
+quickly as you can, and the tailor's helpers will pack them in your suit
+cases.  You travel in citizen's clothes, and don your uniforms as soon
+as you get aboard the gunboat."
+
+Ten minutes later each proud submarine boy picked up his suit case and
+sword, the latter, in each instance, being inside of a chamois-skin
+carrying case.
+
+In single file they made their way to the street.
+
+"Now, for the last leg of the race in Washington," announced Ensign
+McGrath, as they entered the automobile once more.
+
+"I wonder if it will happen on the way, or at the station?" laughed Jack,
+as the government gas-wagon whirled them down Pennsylvania Avenue.
+
+"Will what happen?" inquired McGrath.
+
+"Why," laughed Benson again, "I know we've got to wake up out of this
+trance, but I can't figure when it's going to happen."
+
+"I suppose all of you do feel excited," nodded Ensign McGrath,
+understandingly.
+
+"Not excited," declared Jack.  "I'm just simply unprepared to believe
+that any part of this has really happened."
+
+At the railway station they were met by a messenger from the chief
+clerk's office, who handed each of the submarine boys a small parcel.
+
+"Copy of the Regulations, sir" stated the messenger.  "It is required
+that each officer of the Navy possess a copy."
+
+"You'll want to scan the book good and hard most of the way down to
+Norfolk," advised Ensign McGrath.  "You'll find much between the covers
+that you'll need to know right at the first jump-off.  And now, for the
+tickets."
+
+These McGrath bought, including parlor car seats.  The ensign then saw
+them safely to their seats.
+
+"Now, you've got enough to do, reading your new books," laughed the
+ensign, "So I'm not going to waste your time by staying here to talk
+to you.  It's ten minutes, yet, to the time of your departure.  Good-bye,
+gentlemen--_and good luck!_"
+
+When McGrath had gone Jack leaned across the aisle to whisper:
+
+"Eph, can you get at your sword handily--to draw it, I mean?"
+
+"What's up?" said Eph, suspiciously.
+
+"I want you to stick about a sixteenth of an inch of the point of your
+sword into me, so I can judge how long I've been dreaming."
+
+"What's the matter with using your own sword?" demanded Eph, a trifle
+gruffly.
+
+"That's just the trouble," smiled Benson, plaintively.  "I'm afraid I'll
+wake up and find I haven't any."
+
+Hal was leaning back in his parlor car chair, his eyes closed.  He was
+dreaming delicious daydreams.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+COMMANDER OF A U.S. GUNBOAT!
+
+
+"Lieutenant Benson, sir?" inquired a coxswain, saluting.
+
+"Yes," replied Jack, returning the salute.
+
+"The gig is waiting to take you to the 'Sudbury' sir."
+
+This information was punctuated by another salute which Jack, as head of
+the party of three young officers, again returned.
+
+"Lead the way," directed Jack.
+
+For the third time saluting, the coxswain possessed himself of Jack's
+suit case and sword, then crossed the wharf to the landing stairs
+down below, the gunboat's cutter waited, a natty little craft, occupied
+by a bowman and four oarsmen.
+
+The three young officers seated themselves at the stern of the gig.
+
+"Cast off," directed the coxswain.  "Up oars!  Let fall!  Give way!"
+
+With the long, steady, magnificent sweep of the Navy which the sailors
+pulled, the little gig seemed to race through the water.
+
+"Is that the 'Sudbury'?" inquired Jack, nodding toward a trim little
+gunboat some two hundred feet long.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+All three of the submarine boys gazed at the gunboat with secret
+enthusiasm.  Had it not been for the guns fore and aft, and at the
+rail on either side, the "Sudbury" might have been mistaken for some
+multi-millionaire's yacht.
+
+In another moment the gig was making fast at the gangway.  Then Jack
+Benson stepped out, and, heading his comrades, went up over the side.
+
+At the head of the gangway a corporal and four marines stood drawn up.
+At a low-voiced command from the corporal the marines presented arms,
+standing thus until the three new young officers, saluting, passed.
+
+Just beyond the marines, stood an officer of the Navy.  He brought his
+hand to his cap in a smart salute.
+
+"Lieutenant Benson?" inquired this officer.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I am Ensign Fullerton, executive officer of this vessel."
+
+They shook hands and Jack presented his comrades.
+
+"I think I had better show you to your cabin, sir," suggested Ensign
+Fullerton.
+
+"As you please," nodded Jack.
+
+The way was actually led, however, by three of the marines, who, at a
+word from the corporal, had possessed themselves of the limited baggage
+of the new arrivals.
+
+In Jack's cabin was a broad double berth, two deep wardrobe closets, a
+book-case, desk and several chairs.
+
+"I had no idea junior officers had such roomy quarters," murmured Jack.
+
+"They don't, usually, sir," smiled Fullerton.  "But it's different, of
+course, in the case of the commanding officer."
+
+"But I'm not the commanding officer," gasped Jack.
+
+"For the purposes of this cruise you are," smiled Fullerton.  "But I
+forget.  You haven't received your orders.  There they are on your desk.
+They arrived less than an hour ago by wire."
+
+Like one in a dream young Jack Benson picked up a bulky telegraph
+envelope and broke the seal.  There, before his eyes, danced the words
+of the latest order from the Secretary of the Navy.
+
+Lieutenant Jack Benson was directed to take command of the United
+States gunboat, 'Sudbury,' until further orders.  Ensigns Hastings and
+Somers were directed to assume such duties aboard as were assigned to
+them by Lieutenant Benson.
+
+"I didn't expect this," stammered Jack.  "I--I--we thought our
+temporary rank in the Navy was given us merely that we might have legal
+standing in making one arrest that is wanted."
+
+"No one ever does know just what is wanted of him, until the order
+comes," laughed Ensign Fullerton.  "At least, that has been the case
+since Mr. Sanders became Secretary of the Navy.  He keeps all officers
+on the jump.  But I guess that is what a good many of them need, sir."
+
+As the Ensign appeared to be at least twenty-five years old that
+respectful "sir" struck young Benson's ear queerly.
+
+"Pardon me, gentlemen, but be seated," suggested Lieutenant Jack,
+suddenly, as he realized that his chums and this one sure-enough naval
+officer were all standing.
+
+"You have been aboard naval vessels before, sir, haven't you?" asked
+Ensign Fullerton.
+
+"Oh, yes; but never in the present way," smiled Benson.
+
+"Then, no doubt, you understand, sir, that the 'Sudbury' is under steam,
+only awaiting your order to put to sea."
+
+"The last part of these orders," replied Jack, picking up the telegram,
+"advises me that sailing orders will be wired soon."
+
+"Then may I make a suggestion, sir?"
+
+"Of course," nodded young Benson.
+
+"At your direction I will have Mr. Hastings and Mr. Somers shown to
+their cabins.  Then I will send for the one other young man left of
+the gunboat's old equipment of officers, and present him to you.  After
+that I would suggest, sir, that I have the crew piped to quarters for
+brief inspection by the new commanding officer."
+
+Hal and Eph were quickly made acquainted with their own cabins, which
+were on the port side of the gun-deck, Jack's being on the starboard.
+
+Ensign Fullerton brought in a slim, very erect young man in a
+midshipman's uniform--Mr. Drake, just out of the Naval Academy.
+
+"Our engineers are all warrant machinists or petty officers; no
+commissioned officers among them," stated Fullerton.  "Our highest
+marine officer is Sergeant Oswald.  Besides the sergeant we have
+eighteen other enlisted men among the marines.  Here is the ship's
+complete roster," continued the Ensign, taking a document out of a
+pigeon-hole over the young commander's desk.  "And now, sir, shall I
+pass the order for piping the crew to quarters?"
+
+"If you will be so good," Jack nodded, rising.
+
+At this moment Hal and Eph appeared at the doorway.
+
+"Pardon me, gentlemen, for suggesting that you had better put your
+swords on," suggested Fullerton, "Inspection of crew at quarters is
+about to come off."
+
+Hal and Eph vanished, but soon reappeared, wearing their new swords
+and trying hard not to look conscious of the fact.  Jack was engaged
+in adjusting his own side-arm to his belt.
+
+"I neglected to state, sir," continued Ensign Fullerton, "that we have
+no medical officer at present.  A hospital steward down in sick bay is
+our nearest approach, at present, to a medical officer."
+
+"Forewarned is forearmed," laughed Jack.  "We'll try not to be ill."
+
+It was time, now, to proceed to the quarterdeck; for, forward, the
+shrill sound of the boatswain's whistle seemed to fill the air.
+
+Though all the crew, including the marines, had been summoned and
+formed at the mast, the inspection was but a matter of a moment.  Its
+purpose was more to give the crew a glimpse of their new officers.
+
+Just as the inspection was ending, a marine of the guard approached,
+announcing in a low tone:
+
+"Telegram for the commanding officer, sir."
+
+Ensign Fullerton received it, returning the marine's salute, and passed
+the envelope to Jack Benson, who opened it.
+
+"Our sailing orders, Mr. Fullerton," announced Jack, as soon as the
+former had dismissed the formation at the mast.  "This telegram gives,
+as you see, the latest reported position of the schooner believed to be
+the 'Juanita,' and her course.  You will get under way at once, Mr.
+Fullerton.  Then you and I will work out the course."
+
+"This is the starboard watch, sir," continued the executive officer.
+"Which officer is to command it?"
+
+"Mr. Hastings.  Mr. Somers will take the port watch."
+
+"Very good, sir.  And I would suggest, sir, that Mr. Drake is an
+excellent pilot between here and the sea."
+
+"Then direct Mr. Drake to take the bridge with the watch officer."
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+"And, as soon as we are under way, Mr. Fullerton, come to my cabin and
+we will figure out our course more in detail."
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+It was Ensign Fullerton, who, acting as executive officer, transmitted
+the needed orders to Hal, Eph and Midshipman Drake.
+
+The three young officers now removed their swords, sending them by a
+marine orderly to their respective cabins.  Hal took command from the
+bridge, subject to Fullerton's directions, while Jack, as commanding
+officer, also took his station there briefly.  Eph, being free to do as
+he pleased for the time, went to his cabin to try to figure out
+whether he were dreaming.
+
+Quickly the "Sudbury" left her anchorage, proceeding downstream.  As soon
+as the start had been fairly made Ensign Fullerton reported at the
+cabin of the young commanding officer.  They worked out on the chart the
+probable positions that the suspected schooner would take that afternoon.
+
+"We should sight her at about five o'clock, sir, if she doesn't change
+her course, and if the wind holds the same," said Ensign Fullerton.
+
+"If we get the right craft, first off, it will be a short cruise, won't
+it?" smiled Jack, rather wistfully.
+
+"I--I--" began Ensign Fullerton, slowly, then paused.
+
+"Well?" smiled Jack Benson.
+
+"On second thought, I believe I had better not say what I started to
+say," replied the ensign.
+
+"Oh, go ahead, Fullerton," urged Jack.  "It isn't easy to wound my
+sensibilities."
+
+"I was going to say, sir," replied the Ensign, flushing a bit, "that I
+quite understand how you feel about a short cruise.  The sensation of
+holding a command in the United States Navy is one that you would not
+care to give up too soon."
+
+"I was thinking of something of the sort," Benson admitted.  "But--see
+here!  On one point my orders don't quite enlighten me.  If the suspected
+schooner proves not to be the right are we to come back to report the
+fact?"
+
+"If you were so to order," replied Fullerton.  "Yet you do not need to.
+This vessel is equipped with wireless, and you are in instant
+communication, at every moment of the day and night, with the Navy
+Department at Washington."
+
+"I'm glad of that," admitted Lieutenant Benson, frankly.  "It will
+lessen the danger of my making a fool of myself during my first and last
+naval command."
+
+"Not your last command, I hope," remarked the ensign.
+
+"The only way I could get a permanent command," retorted Jack, "would
+be to get appointed to Annapolis, if I could, and then work through the
+long, long years for command rank."
+
+"There are other ways," replied Ensign Fullerton, quietly.  "And
+especially, if a war should break out.  Young men trained as finely as
+you and your comrades, and showing as great talent, sir, would have no
+difficulty in reaching important rank in a war of the future, when so
+much must be risked on the submarine craft of which you young men are
+masters."
+
+"We have run a few submarine boats, I suppose," nodded Benson.  "But none
+of us has ever had the Annapolis training."
+
+"Not all of the best American sea-fighters have come out of Annapolis,
+sir," replied Fullerton, soberly.  "If a boy gets through Annapolis
+there's nothing wonderful in his making a fairly good officer.  But
+my cap, sir, is off to boys who can come through the ordinary machine
+shop and qualify themselves to command submarine boats or anything else
+afloat!"
+
+Then, dropping back to his ordinary manner, Fullerton saluted, next
+left the cabin to carry to the watch officer the orders for the course.
+
+Lieutenant Jack Benson, briefly of the U.S. Navy, strolled out to the
+after deck for a short promenade.  Here he was joined by Eph Somers, who,
+in his naval uniform, did not forget to salute before accosting the
+commanding officer of the U.S.S. "Sudbury."
+
+"I'm really beginning to feel that I'm not dreaming," confided Eph,
+almost in a whisper.  "Whee!  but it's fine to be out on a craft so big
+that you don't get a cramp in your leg from walking!  Say, do you know,
+Jack," he whispered, "I am almost crazy to see one of this ship's big
+guns fired!"
+
+"You may have your wish," laughed Jack.  "Who knows?"
+
+Who knew, indeed?
+
+How was it possible, for that matter, for any of these three young
+officers to guess what lay ahead of them?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE BOW GUN BOOMS AND EPH PUTS OFF
+
+
+In the nineteenth century, when a vessel left port, her destination
+unknown, that craft might get away from a pursuing squadron scattered
+over the seas.
+
+At best, knowledge of a marine fugitive's whereabouts could be gained
+only from the masters of other vessels that had sighted the fugitive.
+Usually, such information must be delayed until the informing master of
+the sighting ship reached port.
+
+In the twentieth century all is greatly changed.
+
+A vessel bound for parts unknown, carrying some fugitive from justice,
+is sighted by some steamship that is equipped with a wireless telegraph
+outfit.  Hours before, perhaps, the master of the steamship has been
+asked to keep a weather-eye open for a vessel that answers the name or
+description of the runaway craft.  Now, she is sighted by the master of
+the steamship.  Ten minutes later the authorities on shore know the
+exact whereabouts of the fleeing craft.  Should she change her course
+wholly, her new whereabouts is soon after reported to land by the
+master of some other wireless equipped steamship.
+
+Once upon a time the task of finding and overtaking a runaway vessel
+at sea presented innumerable difficulties.  Nowadays, it is often
+necessary only that the pursuing craft possess sufficiently greater
+speed to overtake the easily located fugitive.
+
+As the "Sudbury" turned out into the open sea that little gunboat was
+in instant communication with Washington, and also with any wireless
+equipped ocean traveler up to nearly half way across the great Atlantic.
+
+At three o'clock the Navy Department at Washington reported to a gunboat
+out of sight of land that the last sighting of the supposed "Juanita"
+placed her on the same course as hitherto reported.
+
+At four o'clock came word that the Navy Department had had no new report
+as to the schooner by wireless.
+
+At five o'clock another wireless despatch was flashed through the air.
+Lieutenant Jack Benson, reading, discovered that the "Juanita" had
+again been sighted on the same course, headed for some port in the
+British West Indies.
+
+At 5:20 Ensign Eph Somers, port watch officer of the "Sudbury," sent a
+marine orderly to report to Lieutenant Benson that a schooner's
+topmasts were within sight.
+
+Benson hurried to the bridge, but found Ensign Fullerton there just
+ahead of him.
+
+"We'll shape our course in straight pursuit of the schooner, Mr.
+Fullerton," decided Lieutenant Jack.
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+As yet the schooner's topmasts were visible only from the military top.
+After a few minutes had passed, however, the vessel's masts were visible
+from the bridge.
+
+"Does her rig look like that of the 'Juanita,' Mr. Somers?" questioned
+young Benson.
+
+"I can't say, sir," Eph replied.  "I didn't see her, at Cobtown, under
+sail.  I shall have to wait until I can make out the hull, sir, before
+I can make even a good guess."
+
+Smoke was pouring heavily from the "Sudbury's" two funnels by this time,
+for the gunboat was being pushed, under forced draught, to considerably
+better than twenty knots an hour.  The schooner apparently was making
+between seven and eight knots an hour.
+
+In a few minutes more the hull of the stranger began to show.  Eph,
+with a pair of marine glasses to his eyes, studied the stranger long
+and carefully.  Lieutenant Benson, knowing it would be folly to hasten
+his comrade's judgment, waited in silent patience.
+
+"That craft looks very much like the 'Juanita,' sir," ventured Eph, at
+last.  "In fact, sir, I think that's our schooner."
+
+"Steer up to windward of her, then, Mr. Somers," Jack directed.  "Mr.
+Fullerton, give orders to have the port bow gun manned.  When the order
+is given, be prepared to fire a blank shot toward the schooner.  If,
+after one minute, the schooner shows no signs of heaving to, then fire
+a solid shot across her bows."
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+Without leaving the bridge Ensign Fullerton passed the word for the
+manning of the gun and loading with a blank cartridge.
+
+There was a new, deeper glow in Eph Somers's eyes as he paced the
+bridge.  He was to have, at last, his wish to see the "Sudbury" fire
+a shot.
+
+In a few minutes more the "Sudbury" was ranging tip alongside the
+schooner, though a full quarter of a mile away to windward.
+
+"Mr. Fullerton, fire the blank shot at the stranger," ordered Lieutenant
+Jack Benson.
+
+"Aye, aye, sir."
+
+The order was carried by a simple wave of the executive officer's hand.
+The petty officer in command behind the bow gun, looking for the signal,
+saw it and gave a low-toned order.
+
+_Bang!_ Eph was watching for it.  His eyes danced as he heard the sharp
+explosion and saw the cloud of white smoke, with the tongue of fire
+spitting through the center of it.  In most of us there is left some of
+the spirit of the old Norse pirate; Eph had a lot of it.
+
+"The people on the schooner act as though they were bewildered," smiled
+Jack, watching the schooner through his glass.  "It doesn't look as
+though they expected any such order from us.  I wonder if they mean
+to obey?"
+
+"Worse for them, if they don't," replied Ensign Fullerton, grimly.  "A
+solid shot across the bows, and a shot through their rigging after that.
+What schooner has any chance to defy a ship of war?"
+
+"There they go around," cried Jack, barely above his breath, "They'll
+heave to."
+
+"Of course," smiled Fullerton.  "Your orders, sir?"
+
+"Lower the power launch.  Send a corporal and four marines, and six
+sailors, armed, beside the boat-handlers.  Mr. Somers will take command,
+as he's the only one of us who knows the fellow Gray by sight."
+
+Ensign Fullerton accordingly transmitted the orders, also ordering
+Midshipman Drake up to the bridge to serve as watch officer in Eph's
+absence.  Hal Hastings was asleep in his cabin at the time.
+
+In the meantime the schooner continued "hove to," several men lining
+her starboard rail.
+
+"Somehow, Mr. Fullerton," muttered Lieutenant Jack, after Eph had
+departed in the power launch with his boarding crew, "I'm not much
+inclined to think that's our schooner."
+
+"Somers seemed to think so."
+
+"Mr. Somers said it looked like the 'Juanita.' He's too careful to
+commit himself to more than that."
+
+"We shall soon know, sir, anyway."
+
+It is probable that Eph was disappointed that the schooner had been
+stopped by anything less than a round shot through her rigging.  Yet,
+as he stood up in the stern of the launch, as it bounded over the waves,
+he felt a heap of satisfaction in the thought that he commanded the
+searching party, and that he did so by virtue of being an officer in
+the United States Navy.  And this, too, was a form of duty in which
+Ensign Somers wore his sword at his side.
+
+"I hope they're preparing a surprise for us," chuckled Eph, as he
+looked about him at his armed crew.  "I hope the schooner's people
+will try some mean trick for us, or attempt to put up a fight.  Whee!"
+
+Yet none of these aggressive thoughts showed in the young Ensign's face.
+Eph knew his place, usually, and the amount of dignity that went with
+any place.
+
+"Make fast alongside!" Eph sang out, as the launch rounded in alongside
+the schooner.
+
+"What's wrong with the United States Navy, Midshipman?" came the jovial
+question from a bronzed, broad-shouldered, bearded man of fifty who
+appeared at the quarter rail, offering Eph a hand to aid him on board.
+
+But Eph, disdaining the proffered hand, seized the rail, vaulting neatly
+on board.  Then he straightened up.
+
+"I am Ensign Somers, from the gunboat 'Sudbury.'"
+
+"Ensign, eh?" muttered the schooner's master, looking in some
+bewilderment at Eph's boyish face.  "I beg your pardon, Mr. Somers."
+
+"What craft is this, sir?" Eph continued.
+
+"Schooner 'Varia,' from New York, bound for Jamaica."
+
+"We saw 'Varia' painted on your stern, of course," smiled Eph.  "But was
+that name painted there during the night?"
+
+"Sir?" demanded the skipper, in some astonishment.  "Oh, I see, Ensign.
+Your commander thinks we may be sailing under false colors.  Will you
+be kind enough to step down into my cabin?"
+
+Here an elderly man, in yachting dress, stepped forward out of a group
+of sailors at the waist of the craft.
+
+"This schooner is chartered to convey--" he began, but Eph interposed,
+politely:
+
+"Pardon me, sir, but I am talking with the captain only."
+
+Then, turning toward the launch, Ensign Somers called:
+
+"Corporal, board with your marines, and wait further orders."
+
+Then Eph followed the captain below.
+
+"The gentleman who spoke to you," explained Varia's master, "is Dr.
+Herman Barnard.  He chartered the 'Varia' at New York for a West Indian
+cruise for himself and his family.  Here are my papers, as master.  Here
+is the 'Varia's' license to carry passengers, and here are our clearance
+papers, from New York to Jamaica."
+
+The papers were all in regular order.  Eph looked them over, noting that
+the master's name was Walford.
+
+"I don't see anything wrong here, Captain Walford," Eph continued.
+"Where is your list of passengers?"
+
+"Here, sir."
+
+Eph glanced over the list, noting that besides Dr. Barnard, there were
+five other men passengers, besides Mrs. Barnard, her two daughters and
+one other woman.
+
+"I shall have to ask you, Captain, to line your passengers up on deck,"
+Eph continued.
+
+"I had hoped to escape that annoyance, sir," protested the schooner's
+master.  "The ladies were alarmed, and took to their staterooms."
+
+"I am very sorry, Captain," Eph insisted, "but I must look over the
+passengers."
+
+"Very good, then," sighed Captain Walford.
+
+"And muster the crew forward.  I must see on deck every person on this
+craft."
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+Eph returned to deck, leaning against the starboard rail of the quarter
+deck.  Below, he heard some sounds of remonstrance in feminine voices.
+Then, as a step sounded on the after companionway, and Eph straightened
+up, he heard a woman's voice say:
+
+"United States Navy?  I would call this a good deal more like piracy!"
+
+"But, mamma--"
+
+"Hush, child!"
+
+Mrs. Barnard, when she stepped on deck, looked as severe as her husband
+appeared mild.
+
+Ensign Eph doffed his cap quickly to the ladies.
+
+"I know this does not please you," he said, courteously, "but I will ask
+you to remember that I am acting under orders, and have no choice."
+
+"It is outrageous to stop a pleasure craft in this fashion!" declared
+Mrs. Barnard, haughtily.
+
+"Do you know why we are making this search, madam?" asked Eph, sweetly.
+
+"Of course I don't," snapped the good lady.
+
+"Then I marvel," replied Eph, with another bow, "that you can have an
+opinion of something that you don't understand."
+
+One of the girls was so undutiful as to snigger.  Thereupon, one of the
+young men joined in the laugh, which became so general that the severe
+expression on Mrs. Barnard's face softened considerably.
+
+"Perhaps I owe you an apology, young man, for having spoken as I did of
+you," admitted the good lady.
+
+"You only called us pirates," smiled Eph.  "That wasn't much."
+
+"Perhaps I said more than I should have said, young man," admitted Mrs.
+Barnard.
+
+"Mamma, wouldn't it be better to address this officer by his title?"
+asked the elder of the girls.  Then, turning to Eph, the same speaker
+inquired:
+
+"May I ask your title?  Are you a captain?"
+
+"Only an ensign, miss," Eph replied, "and only an acting ensign at that."
+
+While this brief conversation had been going on, the cook, stewards and
+watch below were being routed out.  Now Captain Walford came aft to
+report:
+
+"All hands on board, sir, have been turned out for your inspection."
+
+"All?" insisted Eph.
+
+"All, sir."
+
+"Then, Captain Walford, I am going to do something that may appear very
+extreme, but I regret to say that I can't help it.  I must search this
+craft.  If I allowed one for whom we are seeking to slip through our
+fingers it would bring a lot of blame down about my head."
+
+Eph now stepped back to the rail, ordering six of the sailors on board.
+To them he gave his orders.  The party spread, going below.  Eph,
+excusing himself to the ladies, went with the sailors.
+
+No more thorough search could have been made.  Every nook and cranny of
+the schooner was searched, but at last Eph was obliged to admit that
+the man he sought was not aboard.
+
+"My apologies to everyone for all trouble caused," declared Ensign
+Somers.  "I trust you will find it easy to believe that I have only been
+following my orders; and, therefore, doing my duty."
+
+"You couldn't have done less, Ensign," replied Dr. Barnard, courteously.
+"You couldn't have been more courteous."
+
+"Are we at liberty to proceed on our way, sir?" asked Captain Walford,
+as the young acting ensign went over the side.
+
+"I shall have to ask you to take the signal for that from the 'Sudbury,'"
+Eph answered.
+
+On the gunboat's quarter deck, following Ensign Somers's report, there
+was an anxious conference.
+
+"If this is the craft we've been following all the time," muttered
+Jack Benson, "we've a lot of hunting yet ahead of us."
+
+"Shall I signal the schooner permission to proceed, sir?" asked Ensign
+Fullerton.
+
+"By all means."
+
+Darkness came down over the ocean while Lieutenant Jack was sending a
+wireless despatch through the air to the Navy Department.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+"THE RIGHT BOAT AND THE RIGHT CREW!"
+
+
+Three hours later, under a new order from Washington, the gunboat's
+launch stole in alongside of a second schooner that had been pursued,
+overhauled and brought to a standstill.
+
+This craft, however, proved to be a Nova Scotian vessel, with papers all
+right, a cargo beyond suspicion and no sign of the fugitive Gray aboard.
+
+When news of this second failure had been flashed to Washington, and
+twenty minutes more had passed, the instructions came back out of the
+ether:
+
+"Cruise slowly about where you are.  Await new instructions, which will
+go forward to you as soon as we have fresh, reliable information from
+any source.  See that your own search light is freely used through the
+night."
+
+"'Puss in the Corner,' at sea," muttered Lieutenant Benson.  "And we
+ain't even find a corner."
+
+An hour later the young commander of the "Sudbury" turned in.  Hal was
+on the bridge.
+
+The gunboat cruised along lazily at about eight knots an hour.  For
+some time Hal paced the bridge indolently, while the sailor lookout,
+forward, manipulated the searchlight, sending its beam in wide circles
+over the waters.
+
+It was within half an hour of the time of calling the new watch, in fact,
+when the bow watch reported:
+
+"Sail dead ahead, sir!"
+
+Barely more than a topsail could be made out, even through the marine
+glass of the young watch officer.
+
+"Hold the light on her; we'll overtake and examine her, anyway," was
+Ensign Hastings's quick decision.  From the bridge he gave orders for
+the engine room to go ahead with increased speed.  While the gunboat was
+bounding off after the stranger, time came to call the port watch.  Eph
+Somers came up to the bridge, somewhat sleepy.
+
+"Same old story, I guess," yawned Eph.  "Have you passed the word to
+the executive office?"
+
+"Not yet," Hal replied.  "I didn't believe it worth while to break the
+slumber of Mr. Fullerton, or of the commander, until we got close to
+see whether the stranger looks in the least like the 'Juanita.'"
+
+"I don't believe the 'Juanita' is anywhere on this wide ocean," muttered
+Eph, stifling a yawn.
+
+"It doesn't look that way," smiled Hastings.
+
+Down before the wheelhouse a bell began to sound briskly.
+
+"Eight bells; your watch, Mr. Somers," announced Hastings.  "But I am
+going to remain on the bridge with you for a while.  I want a look at
+that mud-hooker over yonder."
+
+Within fifteen minutes more the gunboat was running fairly close,
+though off to starboard.
+
+"That doesn't look even a little bit like the 'Juanita,'" muttered
+Ensign Eph, disgustedly.  "Why, she's longer than the Cobtown schooner.
+Besides, the 'Juanita' is a two-sticker, while that hooker yonder has
+a third mast with a yawl-rig leg-o'-mutton sail."
+
+Hal said nothing, but continued to study the stranger through his
+night-glass.
+
+"She is a queer-looking hooker," muttered Hastings.  "Say, Eph, somehow
+that boat doesn't look as though she was built to fit her own rig."
+
+"Why not!" demanded Eph.
+
+"Well, look at her length.  Then take a peep at the height of her
+dory-mast.  Does it look tall enough for the length of the schooner?"
+
+"I hadn't thought of that," admitted Somers, also taking a careful look
+through the nightglass.  "Jove, Hal, she is an odd-looking piece of
+hulk."
+
+Eph turned to pass the order to run in still closer to the schooner.
+
+"What's wrong with her stern-hull?" asked Ensign Somers, three or four
+minutes later.
+
+"Looks like a patchwork affair," declared Hal, more interested than
+ever.
+
+"Has she a built-on stern?" demanded Somers, half a minute later.
+
+"By Jove, I half believe she has.  Eph, without that stern and the yawl
+mast, would you say the craft looks like the 'Juanita'?"
+
+"I believe she would," muttered young Somers, excitedly.  "Marine
+orderly!"
+
+A sea-soldier came quickly up the bridge stairs, saluting.
+
+"Mr. Somers's compliments to Mr. Fullerton, and will the executive
+officer come to the bridge?"
+
+Again saluting the marine vanished aft.  It doesn't take a naval officer
+long to report, even when he has to rouse himself out of a sound sleep
+to do it.
+
+Ensign Fullerton reached the bridge rubbing his eyes, but he listened
+intently to what the two younger ensigns had to say.
+
+"Marine orderly!" called the executive officer.  "Mr. Fullerton's
+compliments to the commanding officer, and will he come to the bridge?"
+
+Barely a minute later, Jack Benson stood on the bridge, listening to his
+subordinate officers and staring across the gap of water at the
+unknown craft.
+
+"Mr. Fullerton," directed the young commander, "prepare to fire a signal
+shot and to lower the power launch.  Make up the boarding party as usual.
+Mr. Somers, you will go in command of the launch.  And I will accompany
+you this time.  Mr. Fullerton, when I leave the bridge, you will assume
+command."
+
+Both officers, as they received their orders, saluted.
+
+Bang!  The signal gun barked out, the flash from the muzzle sending a
+long tongue of red through the darkness.
+
+But the stranger continued on her way through the night.  Ensign
+Fullerton regarded the young commanding officer of the gunboat
+expectantly.
+
+"Put a solid shot across her bows, Mr. Fullerton."
+
+Again the order was transmitted, with little noise.  The gun-crew then
+awaited the signal from the executive officer.
+
+Bang!  This time the solid shot struck the water a bare fifty feet ahead
+of the strange craft's bows as she forged on through the waves, her bow
+stirring up a gleaming white foam.
+
+"That ought to stop her!" muttered Lieutenant Jack Benson, impatiently.
+
+"I don't believe it is going to, though, sir," reported Ensign Fullerton,
+studying the other vessel through his night-glass.  "I don't see a sign
+of motion on the stranger's decks."
+
+"Load again with solid shot, then," directed the gunboat's young
+commander.  "This time hit her square in the fore-rigging."
+
+"I'll step below and sight the piece myself," replied Ensign Fullerton.
+
+A few moments later the executive officer reported the port bow gun in
+readiness for service.
+
+"Fire whenever you are ready, Mr. Fullerton," called Lieutenant Jack, in
+a low voice.
+
+Bang! barked the bow gun, a moment later.  Over aboard the stranger
+there was a crash, a tearing sound, and then her foretopmast toppled,
+hanging loosely in place by the stays.
+
+"That'll stop her, I reckon." chuckled Jack Benson.
+
+And "stop her" it did.  There was no choice but to stop.  This gunboat
+of the United States Navy was in a position to shoot every standing
+stick out of the schooner, if provoked too far, and the legal right to
+go to such lengths existed.
+
+"Stranger is heaving to, sir," reported Ensign Somers.
+
+"Very good, Mr. Somers.  Order the power launch lowered.  Put off as
+quickly as possible."
+
+"Very good, sir."
+
+Ensign Fullerton hastened back to the bridge, to assume command, while
+Hal hastings stood by him.
+
+Boat-handlers and armed sailors and marines scampered over the side.
+Down the gangway followed Jack and Eph, looking very stately as they
+held their swords clear of their legs.  Busily the launch chugged
+across the intervening water gap.
+
+"Schooner, ahoy!" hailed Eph, as the launch ran in alongside "What craft
+is that?"
+
+"Schooner 'Malta,' Cooper, master, from Sidney, N.S.," came the reply of
+a man at the after rail.
+
+"Seems to me I've seen you before, in Cobtown!" suddenly exclaimed Eph
+Somers, as he leaped over the rail in advance of his marines.
+
+"C-Cob--town?" demanded the schooner's master, falteringly.
+
+"By the great Constitution!  We've caught the 'Juanita' in disguise!"
+bellowed back Ensign Eph, turning to Jack Benson, who was just boarding.
+"See!  There's the false stern structure."
+
+"You're making a huge mistake of some sort, gentlemen!" protested the
+vessel's master, tremulously.
+
+"Marines, lay aboard," thundered Eph.  "Take the deck, Corporal.  Round
+up all the crew you see, and make 'em stand at attention along one of
+the seams of the deck!  Sailors aboard, you down any man who tries to
+block or balk you.  Lively, now!  I've seen this master in Cobtown, and
+I'll take my oath this is the 'Juanita' with a pieced-out, false stern
+and a faked third mast!"
+
+"We hold you responsible for the deck, Corporal," spoke Jack, in a low
+tone to the noncommissioned officer of marines.  "We're going to take
+the sailors and go below."
+
+A rush was made for the companionway leading down into the schooner's
+cabin.  A man's white, scared face showed below, for a moment.
+
+"Hurrah!" yelled Eph Somers, drawing his sword and making a bound below
+"There's Brother Gray.  Oh, we've the right boat--and the right crowd,
+too!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE DUEL THROUGH THE DOOR
+
+
+Bang!
+
+A stateroom door closed just before the two young officers reached it.
+
+Click!  That told the story of a bolt shot into place.
+
+"You may as well open!" called Jack, coolly.  "We have ample force for
+breaking down that door!"
+
+Crack!  In that confined space the discharge of a pistol sounded almost
+deafening.  A line of red shot through the stateroom door.  The bullet
+from the weapon whizzed between Jack Benson and Eph Somers, the missile
+burying itself in wood across the passage.
+
+Crack!  Crack!
+
+With that desperate fellow the other side of the door, shooting through
+the key-hole, it was worse than folly to remain in line of range.
+
+Yet Jack and Eph retorted coolly, with the dignity of officers.
+
+"My man," requested Lieutenant Jack, turning to one of the sailors,
+"hand me your revolver."
+
+Taking the weapon, Benson glanced at it a second or two, then raised the
+weapon, sighting for the top of the stateroom door.
+
+Bang! The shot that Jack fired sent a bullet crashing through the door
+close to the upper framework.
+
+"You see, Gray!" Jack called coolly, "we're armed, too, and in
+overpowering numbers.  Resistance is worse than foolish."
+
+Bang! came the hostile answer.
+
+This shot was fired through one of the panels of the stateroom
+door--fired at an angle, too.
+
+Plainly the shot was intended to hit the young naval lieutenant.  It
+passed Benson's right side by a margin of barely two inches.
+
+"Pass me another revolver," whispered Benson, in the stillness that
+followed.
+
+All through the day and evening these seamen, though outwardly
+respectful, and wholly well disciplined, had cherished a great deal of
+amusement over their boyish officers.
+
+Now, however, these bronzed men of the deep beheld Benson and Somers at
+work in a manner worthy of any product of Annapolis.
+
+The second revolver was handed to Jack.
+
+"I want to be in this, too," muttered Ensign Eph, and held back his hand
+for weapons.
+
+"Are you going to surrender, Gray, and open that door?" demanded
+Lieutenant Jack.
+
+"Never--to you," came the ugly defiance.
+
+Bang!  Again Gray fired, straight in the direction of the voice the
+bullet, crashing through a panel of the door, fanned Jack's left ear so
+that he felt the breeze.
+
+"Open up on him, Mr. Somers," directed Benson.  "Slowly.  Fire high, and
+fire low.  Try to get him somehow."
+
+Two more shots came from the other side of the locked door.
+
+Then pop-pop-pop! began the fusilade from outside, Jack and Eph firing
+with either hand as they sighted their weapons for new spots.
+
+R-r-rip!  crash!  A long enough bombardment of this sort was certain to
+reduce the panels to splinters and leave the way clear--if they didn't
+riddle Gray with bullets in the meantime.
+
+Pop-pop-pop!  The air was becoming heavy with the white fog of smoke.
+Breathing was somewhat difficult, with so many shots being fired in
+the confined space.
+
+Then both young officers stopped, passing back one revolver apiece to
+be reloaded.
+
+Bang!  came a defiant shot from inside the stateroom.  The bullet
+struck the cabin floor just behind Jack, having passed between his feet.
+
+The sailors, back where they were comparatively safe from harm, looked
+on in admiration at these two grit-full young American officers.
+
+Pop-pop-pop!  began the fusilade by Jack and Eph again.
+
+"Ouch!" came a sudden yell from the stateroom.
+
+"Hit you, did we?" called Jack, calmly.  "Well, we're going to riddle
+you unless you stop that nonsense."
+
+The answer was another shot from inside the stateroom.  The bullet
+clipped off a stray lock of hair at the left side of Eph Somers's head.
+
+Both young officers fired slowly, searchingly, until their weapons were
+emptied.  Then they passed the hot smoking revolvers back for new
+loads.
+
+From the other side of the stateroom door came no sound.
+
+As soon as he and Eph had received the reloaded weapons, Jack motioned
+Eph Somers not to fire.
+
+For a few moments they listened.  Then Jack turned, selecting the two
+most stalwart-looking of the husky sailors back by the companionway.  A
+nod of Jack's head brought them stealthily to his side.
+
+"Put your shoulders to the stateroom door, and force it," commanded
+Lieutenant Benson.
+
+At the same time Jack and Eph moved up with the sailors, holding their
+revolvers ready to fire at the first sign of renewed hostilities from
+within.
+
+Bump!  Two pairs of sturdy shoulders went up against the door.  From
+within there came no sign of defiance.  Bump!  At the second determined
+assault the door flew open.
+
+"Step back, men!  We'll go in first," commanded Lieutenant Benson.
+
+Revolvers in hand, and ready, the two young officers of the "Sudbury"
+pressed forward into the battered-looking room.
+
+"Where is the rascal?" growled Eph Somers.
+
+"Here, hiding like a cornered rat," replied Jack, aiming both revolvers
+at a huddled figure well in under the lower berth.  "Come out, Gray!
+You won't be hurt unless you try tricks on us."
+
+The answer was a groan.
+
+"Are your hurt?" inquired Lieutenant Benson.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How badly?"
+
+"You hit me twice."
+
+"Where?"
+
+"Once in the left arm; once in the right thigh.  O-o-o-h!"
+
+Jack Benson felt a swift twinge--almost a guilty jerk of his conscience.
+
+To be sure, Gray had been defying properly appointed officers of the
+government engaged in performing their sworn task.  Gray had attempted
+to kill or injure the young officers.
+
+Still, Gray was a human being.  Benson, despite his fighting spirit, at
+need, was not fond of gazing upon misery.
+
+"I guess you can get out, with a little aid," coaxed Lieutenant Jack.
+
+Gray's answer was another groan.
+
+"We'll help you out, then," Jack continued.  "But don't you dare to open
+fire upon any of our party!"
+
+"I would, if I could," snarled the wounded man.
+
+"Why can't you?"
+
+"Fired my last cartridge!" snapped the wretch, defiantly.  "Else you
+wouldn't have got in here without losing a few men!"
+
+Jack signed to the two men who had forced the door to lend a hand in
+moving Gray out from under the berth.  As they got the wounded man out
+on the carpet he presented a sad picture in his bloodstained clothing.
+
+"Will the Lieutenant pardon a suggestion?" spoke up one of the sailors,
+saluting.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I have a first aid package, sir.  With some help I can, bind this man's
+wounds until we get him over to the sick bay on the 'Sudbury.'"
+
+"A fine idea," agreed Lieutenant Jack.  "Go ahead."
+
+First of all, the wounded prisoner was taken out into the passageway.
+Jack and Eph had yet important work to do here.  For a few minutes
+they searched in vain.  Then, in turning over the lower berth's mattress,
+Eph's hand touched something hard.
+
+"Wait until I get my pocket-knife out," he smiled.
+
+Rip!  r-r-r-r-rip!  As Ensign Eph tore open the mattress and thrust his
+hands inside, the grin on his face broadened.
+
+"I reckon we've got the object of the whole expedition," he announced.
+
+He drew out a package wrapped in heavy paper.  Jack broke the string,
+unwrapping, and pulling out to the light, a bundle of charts, layer
+upon layer.
+
+"Yes.  Here we have what we're after," nodded Lieutenant Benson.  "And
+here are two books written chock-full of notes to go with the charts.
+Gracious!  That fellow.  Millard must have stolen plans of every
+important fortified harbor on the Atlantic coast.  And here are charts
+of some of the gulf ports as well."
+
+Gray, his wounds bound, had been laid on the door of the stateroom,
+which had been taken from its hinges.  On this stretcher, the prisoner
+was taken over the side into the launch.
+
+"Who's going to pay for the damage done here, sir?" asked the skipper
+of the Cobtown schooner, stepping forward.
+
+"Hm!" muttered Jack.  "It seems to me you are lucky, my man, that we
+don't put a prize crew aboard this craft and take you back to Norfolk."
+
+"I haven't done anything," protested the fellow, "except to stand for a
+lot of damage on board because you're backed by sailors and marines."
+
+"My man," retorted Jack, grimly, "if you think you have suffered any
+unfair damage, then lay your case before the Navy Department.  But my
+private advice is for you not to attract the attention of the authorities
+to you in case they seem likely to overlook you."
+
+"Is my vessel at liberty to proceed?" inquired the man, sullenly.
+
+"Yes; I have no orders to seize your craft.  I'd like to, however,"
+Lieutenant Jack Benson added, dryly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE LAST HOUR OF COMMAND
+
+
+Through the night the "Sudbury" rolled lazily over the waves.
+
+A wireless message had carried the news through space to Washington.
+Orders had come to return to Norfolk, there turning Gray over to the
+United States authorities.
+
+Benson and his comrades were instructed to return to Washington with
+the charts and record books.
+
+Down in a berth in the sick bay, lay Gray.  The hospital steward had
+made the wounded man as comfortable as possible.  The latter was
+painfully but not seriously wounded.
+
+At the speed at which the gunboat was now proceeding the "Sudbury" was
+due at anchorage at six in the morning.
+
+Lieutenant Jack had turned in, after leaving orders that he was to be
+called a few minutes before five.  He wanted to be on deck to enjoy
+the sensations of his last hour of command on the cruise of a vessel
+of the United States Navy.  Forward, the sailors of the watch were
+talking in low tones of their very youthful officers.
+
+"There's the real stuff in those boy officers, mates," grunted one
+sailor who had been in the boarding party.  "It don't make any
+difference whether they've been through Annapolis or not.  Look at the
+way the lieutenant and Mr. Somers went up against the shooting.  Kept
+us back, and took the medicine themselves, like real officers."
+
+"You'd expect it of Somers," rejoined another sailor.  "There's a bit
+of the bull-neck about him, and such men always fight.  But the
+lieutenant makes a real officer that I'd be glad to foller anywhere."
+
+"Mr. Hastings didn't get a chance to show what was in him," suggested
+another of Uncle Sam's old salts.
+
+"Oh, you leave Mr. Hastings alone for fighting, if he saw any need
+to," retorted the sailor who had been the first to speak.  "He's one
+of your very quiet chaps.  Your quiet ones always sail into a fight
+while a brawler is getting his mouth wound up to do some talking."
+
+"Hanged, if I don't wish them lads could remain on board!" muttered
+another old salt.
+
+"With the young lieutenant to command the ship?" asked another.
+
+"Him as well as anyone.  He knows what he's doing, for which reason I
+don't care for the number of the year he was born in.  Why, mates, the
+lieutenant is the head of them submarine boys we've read so much about
+in the newspapers when layin' in port.  And the other two are his
+messmates.  Now, I'll stand for it that the submarine boys are good for
+any kind of a job on salt water.  I'd foller their lead on a battleship!"
+
+It would have been fine for the three submarine boys had they been able
+to know what great opinions the crew held of them.
+
+But Hal was again on the bridge in the last watch, and Eph had gone
+below for an hour's sleep ere he, like Jack Benson, was to be called.
+
+Then, at last, two sleepy-eyed boys came from their cabins, going up
+to the bridge for what they felt was their last hour of real sea-glory.
+
+Ensign Fullerton appeared half an hour before anchorage was made.
+
+"You have the satisfaction, sir, of knowing that your task was put
+through in record time," said Fullerton, by way of congratulation.
+
+"For which I'm truly glad," smiled Benson.  "Yet I could wish our
+experience with the Navy had not ended so soon."
+
+"Why, it hasn't ended yet, sir," smiled the executive officer.
+
+"It will, in a few minutes more, however," sighed Jack.  "My last
+official act will be to order the gig into the water to take us on
+shore.  We're under orders to take the next train for Washington,
+you know."
+
+"Very true," smiled Ensign Fullerton.  "But, sir, you are commanding
+officer of the 'Sudbury,' no matter where you may be, until you receive
+an order to relinquish command.  Also, sir, your present appointments as
+officers in the service run until the orders appointing you are revoked."
+
+"But that will all happen before the day is much older," replied Jack,
+with a forced smile.
+
+It was going to come harder than he had thought, after this brief taste
+of real naval life, to give it all up!
+
+No sooner had the "Sudbury" let go her anchors than Jack called for the
+gig.  He and his comrades hurried below, doffing their uniforms, which
+went back into the dress suit cases.  Then, in citizen dress, with
+their precious swords again wrapped in chamois skin, the three
+submarines went over the side.
+
+There was the same ceremony, however, which had attended their coming
+aboard.  The marine guard turned out, presenting arms as Lieutenant
+Jack Benson passed to the side gangway.  Ensign Fullerton and Mr. Drake
+stood by to salute Jack, and to receive his formal acknowledgment of
+their courtesy.
+
+Their feet touched the bottom of the gig.  They seated themselves, and
+the short row to the landing stage commenced.
+
+On the landing stage stood an orderly, who promptly saluted.
+
+"The Commandant's compliments to Lieutenant Benson, and will the
+Lieutenant and his comrades report at the Commandant's office."
+
+Early as the hour was, the commandant was at his desk, in uniform, and
+received the young officers most graciously.
+
+"Mr. Benson, and gentlemen," declared the commandant of the navy yard,
+"you have done your work well, and as quickly as it could have been
+done.  I congratulate you.  The Secretary of the Navy, I believe, will
+thank you personally, It was splendidly done.  And now, if you will
+come around to the officers' club with me, you will find that your
+breakfasts have been ordered.  It will be an hour and a half, yet,
+before it will be necessary for me to furnish you with the carriage
+that will convey you to the railway station."
+
+In the presence of this much older officer the lads did not attempt to
+make too merry at breakfast.  Seated in the dining room of the
+officers' mess, they listened respectfully to whatever the commandant
+saw fit to discuss.
+
+The meal was about over when a marine orderly entered, crossed the
+dining room, stopped at a respectful distance, and saluted.
+
+"Telegram, sir."
+
+The commandant received the envelope, drawing out the sheet it contained.
+
+"Lieutenant Benson, this will interest you and your comrades," pursued
+the commandant.
+
+"The order revoking my command of the gunboat," thought Jack.  Oddly
+enough, though he expected it, knew it must happen, the arrival of the
+moment brought a strange sinking at heart.
+
+"I wonder how on earth it could have happened?" pursued the commandant,
+his eyes again turned toward the paper.  "Millard has escaped from Fort
+Craven, and, so far, has eluded recapture!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+EPH BETS AN ANCHOR AGAINST A FISH-HOOK
+
+
+"The government possesses the fellow's charts and notes, anyway,"
+observed Jack Benson, rather proudly.
+
+"Yes, thanks to you, gentlemen," nodded the commandant.  "Still, I fancy
+the authorities, will be fearfully annoyed over this escape."
+
+"There are no particulars, sir, you say?" queried Jack.
+
+"No; the mere announcement of the fellow's escape, and a request to
+military and naval authorities to be on the lookout for the fugitive
+The despatch also states that description will follow by wire."
+
+"We can give you a pretty fair word-portrait of Millard right now, sir,"
+offered Lieutenant Benson.
+
+"And I wish you would."
+
+Jack proceeded to do so.  He had about finished, when the carriage
+stopped punctually before the door of the officers' club.  The commandant
+took cordial leave of his young guests, after which they were driven to
+the railway station.  Just a little later they found themselves leaning
+back in parlor car seats, bound for Washington.
+
+Most of the way back the youngsters dozed in their chairs.  Now, that the
+excitement was over, all felt need of rest.
+
+Not even at the railway station in Washington could they escape the
+watchfulness of the Navy Department.  The same messenger who, the day
+before, had handed them their copies of the Regulations, now met
+Benson with a note.
+
+"The Secretary will not be at his office until one o'clock this
+afternoon," announced Lieutenant Jack, looking up from the order.  "We
+are directed to report at that hour."
+
+"What shall we do until then?" demanded Eph, blankly, when the messenger
+had departed.
+
+"Why, since we're still in the service," laughed Jack, "and as I've heard
+that the Arlington is much patronized by Navy officers, suppose we treat
+ourselves to a carriage, go to the Arlington and register.  That will be
+the last grand feeling we'll get out of this."
+
+His comrades rather merrily agreed.  So, a few minutes later, the trio
+marched through the lobby of the Arlington to the desk.  Jack picked up
+a pen, and registered:
+
+"John Benson, U.S.N."
+
+Hal and Eph followed suit.  Then they were led to their connecting rooms.
+
+"We'll have luncheon at half-past eleven," smiled Lieutenant Jack, as
+he dropped into an easy chair.  "In the service one never knows when
+his next meal is coming."
+
+"Good!" chuckled Hal, though there was a sad ring to his tone.  "Keep up
+as long as you can, old fellow, the fiction that we're still in the
+naval service."
+
+"Well, aren't we?" demanded Jack, stoutly.
+
+"Surely," assented Hal, meekly.
+
+"Say," demanded Eph, taking out notebook and pencil, "what is an ensign's
+pay, anyway?"
+
+"Seventeen hundred dollars a year," replied Benson.
+
+"I don't suppose the Navy Department will try to spring less than a
+day's pay on us," hinted Eph.  "If that's right, then the government
+now owes me three hundred and sixty-five into seventeen hundred.  Let
+me see--"
+
+"Oh, cut it!" laughed Hal.
+
+"What?  My pay?" demanded Eph, "Not much, sir!  I want the only money I
+ever really earned."
+
+"One of us ought to drop Mr. Farnum a line," hinted Jack, presently.
+
+"Oh, well, let Hal do it," offered Eph.  "He carries the only fountain
+pen in the crowd."
+
+Without a word Hastings crossed to a table on which were envelopes and
+paper, and began to write.  Perhaps he welcomed something to occupy his
+mind; for, truth to tell, each of these submarine boys had a woefully
+"blue" feeling.  Though all were naval officers, still, at this moment,
+all realized that they would cease to be such as soon as they had
+received the thanks of the Secretary of the Navy.  However, "blue"
+as all three felt, none of them hung back when half-past eleven arrived.
+They descended to the dining room, where they refreshed themselves
+heartily.
+
+The meal over, there was just about enough time left for them to walk
+comfortably to the Navy Department.
+
+They had walked a couple of blocks of the way when Hal suddenly felt the
+stamped letter in his pocket.  He drew it out, and glanced hurriedly
+down the avenue.
+
+"I don't see a letter-box ahead, fellows, but I saw one, half-way down
+the block, at the last corner we passed.  You two keep right on.  I'll
+join you."
+
+Presently Jack and Eph halted in their walk to look back.
+
+"Where is Hal?" demanded Somers.
+
+"He can't have lost us," muttered Jack.
+
+"Oh, I guess he has simply taken a short cut to meet us ahead on the
+way."
+
+Yet, though they continued to look for their comrade until they had
+neared the State, War and Navy Building, Hal Hastings had not again
+appeared in sight.
+
+"Say, but this is fearfully careless of good old Hal," muttered Jack
+Benson, uneasily, as he glanced at his watch.  "We've no time to go back
+to look for him, either, for we've barely time to reach the Secretary's
+office."
+
+"We'll have to go in without Hal, then," grumbled Eph.  "It makes me
+feel like a fool, too!"
+
+Had the two lads but known it, there was still plenty of time.  For the
+Secretary of the Navy may make an appointment with an understrapper,
+and then find that he must first see some more important personage.
+
+There were "big" callers ahead of the boys that day, so that it was
+nearly two o'clock when Lieutenant Jack and Ensign Eph were admitted to
+the presence that they were to leave shorn of their brief rank and
+command.
+
+"Good afternoon, Lieutenant Benson.  Good afternoon, Mr. Somers," was
+Secretary Sanders's swift greeting.  "You were most successful, and I
+must congratulate you heartily.  But--where is Mr. Hastings?"
+
+"We don't know, Mr. Secretary," Jack admitted.  "He left us for a short
+time, as we thought, and, since then--"
+
+Mr. Sanders wheeled sharply as the door opened and a clerk came in.
+
+"Pardon me, sir," apologized the clerk.  "But a note has just come for
+Lieutenant Benson, sir, and the messenger was insistent that it was a
+most important matter--"
+
+"You may take your note and read it, Lieutenant," suggested the Secretary
+of the Navy.
+
+Young Benson gave a start when he recognized, in the address, the
+handwriting of Hal Hastings.
+
+In another instant Jack gave a much more violent start.  For these were
+the words that met his astounded gaze.
+
+_"Dear Jack: I am in a Washington police station, feeling like a
+number-one idiot.  Soon after leaving you I ran into Millard, face to
+face, There was a policeman within two hundred feet at the moment.  I
+let out a full siren yell and dashed at Millard.  He held on to me until
+the policeman reached the spot.  I let him hold me, thinking that the
+easiest way.  But Millard produced a paper--a request from the military
+authorities at Fort. Craven, to arrest and hold anyone pointed out by
+the bearer.  I talked--some--to that policeman, but it did no good.
+He took me to the station house, and here I am!  Millard vanished,
+after saying that he'd wire the news of my arrest to Fort Craven.
+You'll have to explain me out of this.  Yours disgustedly, Hal."_
+
+"May I read this to you, Mr. Secretary?" begged Jack Benson.
+
+"Do so, Lieutenant."
+
+"I will be back in a moment," muttered the Secretary of the Navy, rising,
+and hastily quitting the room.
+
+The instant that high official was gone Eph caught at his sides with his
+hands.
+
+"Oh, wow!  Woof!  Umpah!" chuckled young Somers, his face distorted with
+glee.  "Some one catch me!  I'm choking!  Great Scott, what wouldn't I
+have given to see that?  Hal, the quiet, the dignified?  Oh, dear!  Oh,
+dear.  Hal pounces on the fellow, to arrest him, and Hal is the one who
+gets pinched Woo-oo!  I can see Hal's face right now I'll wager an anchor
+to a fish-hook that the astonished look is stamped on Hal's face so hard
+that it won't come off for a week.  Oh--woof!"
+
+Eph was laughing so hard that the tears streamed down his face.
+
+"Quit that!" commanded Jack, stepping over to his comrade, his own face
+stern.  "It's no laughing matter."
+
+"Why, they won't hang Hal!" sputtered Eph, as soon as he could talk.
+"Hal will be at liberty almost at once.  But fancy the shock!  Imagine
+the dear old fellow's astonishment, and the jolt to his feelings."
+
+Again Eph Somers went off into a paroxysm of laughter.  It seemed
+uncontrollable, for Eph had a strong sense of the ludicrous, and Hal's
+face, as Somers pictured it, must have been a tremendously funny sight
+at the instant when Millard so neatly turned the tables.
+
+"Come, quit your nonsense!" grumbled Jack, disgustedly.
+
+"I can't," roared Eph, going off into still another burst of laughter.
+
+Just at that instant Somers gave himself the lie.  The door opened,
+admitting the Secretary of the Navy.  In a fraction of a second Ensign
+Eph had straightened up, while his face was solemn enough for an Indian
+chief's countenance.
+
+"I have just been straightening out that little matter," explained Mr.
+Sanders.  "I have talked with the police, and have described Hastings.
+The police are in deep chagrin over their blunder.  Mr. Hastings is now
+at liberty and on his way here."
+
+At a motion from Mr. Sanders the two young officers seated themselves.
+The Secretary turned to his desk to sign some papers.
+
+From Eph, suddenly, came a suppressed, explosive sound.  Jack seated
+beside him on a sofa gave Somers an indignant elbow jab.  The Secretary
+glanced up, then resumed his writing.
+
+A minute later there came from Eph the sound of another smothered
+explosion.  The picture of Hal Hastings's indignant astonishment had
+once more been conjured up before young Somers's face.  Poor Eph was
+red in the face with all the effort of keeping back his laughter.
+
+"I fear you must have caught some cold, standing watch on the gunboat's
+bridge," said the Secretary, sympathetically.
+
+That sobered Somers in an instant.  The notion that he--he a sea-dog
+accustomed to stand watch in all weathers, could catch cold through
+exposure of the kind just mentioned made Eph feel a sense of ghastly
+humiliation.
+
+Five minutes later Ensign Hal Hastings was shown into the office. The
+Secretary of the Navy greeted him kindly, though with a twinkle in
+his eyes.
+
+"The paper that caused my trouble was one that was taken from Mr.
+Benson when he couldn't help himself," Hal explained.  "For some reason,
+the military authorities never discovered that Millard had that paper
+about him.  It was enough to save him from arrest an hour ago."
+
+"And Millard is still at large," nodded Mr. Sanders.  "It's a matter
+for the military authorities and the Secret Service, I imagine.  I don't
+see how the Navy can be drawn into it.  However, I am going to ask you
+young gentlemen to retain your special appointments a little longer.  I
+may yet have considerable need of you in this affair.  You are stopping
+at the Arlington?  Perhaps, for this afternoon, you would enjoy going
+over to the United Service Club, where you are likely to meet a good
+many Army and Navy officers.  I will send some one along with you who
+will see to it that you have ten-day cards at the club."
+
+At any other time this all would have meant to Jack Benson that he was
+still an officer in the Navy.  Just now, however, it meant that Millard
+was at large, and Benson had a strong notion that it would yet fall to
+the lot of the submarine boys to put that wretch where he belonged.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+JACK'S CALLER AT THE UNITED SERVICE CLUB
+
+
+"Ho-ho!  Haw-haw!  Woof!"
+
+Eph found himself started again, the very instant the boys found
+themselves in the lower corridor of the building.
+
+"Let him alone," uttered Jack, scornfully.  "The poor fellow had better
+work it all out of his system."
+
+"But, Hal, your face--when the policeman took you, on Millard's
+complaint!" sputtered Somers, next going off into another burst of
+laughter.
+
+"It didn't seem funny, at the time," returned Hal Hastings, quietly.
+
+"Ho-ho!  Haw!  Of course, not.  Say, Hal, can you do me a tremendous
+favor?  Can you look, just for a moment, the way you did when that
+blue-coat pinched you?"
+
+Hal began to laugh, despite the fact that his loss of Millard still
+rankled under his quiet outside.
+
+"Now, hush up," warned Benson, suddenly.  "Here comes Lieutenant Ulwin,
+who has undertaken to present us at the United Service Club.  Idiots are
+barred from the club, you know, Eph."
+
+By a great exercise of will power Eph managed to straighten his face
+by the time that the lieutenant overtook them.  They entered a cab.  By
+this time the young naval officers were beginning to understand that it
+is the usual custom to go about Washington in a carriage.
+
+"Have you ever been at a Service Club before?" inquired their guide.
+
+"We breakfasted at the club at Norfolk this morning?" Jack answered.
+
+"Your acquaintance with our Service clubs is not very large, then?"
+
+"We have also been at the club at Fort Craven."
+
+"Oh!" smiled Lieutenant Ulwin.  "I guess you gentlemen have been about
+a little more in the two branches of the service, than I had suspected.
+You have seen the officers of both the Army and the Navy at play?"
+
+"Mostly at table, I should say," laughed Benson.
+
+"The club is the only place where we can go and get away from shop-talk,"
+continued Ulwin.  "As a rule the Army and Navy men at our club do not
+talk much shop.  It may be different to-day, however."
+
+"Why to-day?" asked Jack.
+
+"Because--well, you see, I am introducing three rather famous strangers
+to-day."
+
+"Meaning--" began Hal, quietly.
+
+"You young gentlemen, of course.  The whole nation has heard much about
+the submarine boys.  Yet it is in the Army and the Navy, after all, that
+the deepest, most abiding interest in you exists."
+
+"This red spot on my cheek isn't a blush," explained Ensign Eph,
+suddenly.  "It's where a mosquito bit me."
+
+"I am not joking," replied Ulwin, with a friendly smile.  "All the
+officers of the Navy know about you by this time."
+
+"They'll be greatly disappointed, when they see us, then, won't they?"
+laughed Hal Hastings.
+
+"Now, see here," protested Eph, earnestly, "I can stand a good deal.
+But, if they see us walking around the club, and ask who left the lid
+off the can of shrimps--I'll fight!"
+
+Ulwin laughed heartily.
+
+"I shall have to pass the word to our worst jokers," he smiled, "that
+it won't be safe for the fellow who starts in to tease you young men."
+
+"Why, if anyone does start, we've got to keep our tongues behind our
+teeth," returned Hal.  "We're only boys--kids--and we can't say
+anything smart to men who have been a good many years in the service."
+
+"You can answer back, if anyone starts to have any fun with you,"
+replied Lieutenant Ulwin.  "Remember, a club is where all men stand on
+an equal footing.  If an admiral gets after you, you will do well to
+swallow any witticism he may try on you.  But with any officer below an
+admiral you don't have to be so careful."
+
+Eph Somers immediately began to look thoughtful.  Now, Eph did know how
+to say caustic things when occasion seemed to demand.
+
+"Here we are," announced Lieutenant Ulwin, suddenly, as the cab stopped
+before the club building.
+
+Hal went in at Ulwin's side.  Jack gripped Eph by the elbow, pulling the
+auburn-haired one back a few paces.
+
+"Now, see here, Eph, remember that we don't want any funny answers
+inside."
+
+"But Ulwin says--"
+
+"You listen to what I'm saying, Eph.  I've known you longer than Mr.
+Ulwin has.  Just remember that we're boys--b-o-y-s--boys.  Not one of
+us is quite eighteen yet.  If we've gained a little fame for five
+minutes, we mustn't begin to imagine that we're eight feet high and on
+a par with men forty years old.  So be careful, Eph.  If anyone starts
+to have any fun with you, come back at him a different way."
+
+"How?" whispered Eph.
+
+"Look stupid."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Look stupid."
+
+"I don't see much in that."
+
+"Why, it's the funniest answer possible; and, besides, it isn't fresh or
+forward."
+
+"How do you make that out?" Eph inquired.
+
+"Why, Eph, boy, if you're half as famous as you may think you are, then
+folks will know you can't be stupid.  So, if you pretend to be, you'll
+have everyone guessing what you mean by looking that way.  On the other
+hand, if you look stupid, and no one is surprised, then you'll
+discover that that's just the way the crowd had you sized up in
+advance."
+
+"I see," nodded Eph, but it was plain that Jack's almost direct command
+was not wholly pleasing to Somers.
+
+The two comrades now caught up with Ulwin and Hal at the elevator.
+
+"We'll go up to the reading room, first," proposed Lieutenant Ulwin.
+"That's where the afternoon crowd is usually found."
+
+Anyone who had been looking for "color" or pomp would have been
+disappointed.  The only uniforms in sight were those worn by two bell
+boys.  The officers of the Army and Navy present were all in citizen
+dress.  They looked like a lot of cheerful, prosperous business men.
+
+"Hullo, Ulwin, what are you doing with my friends from Dunhaven?"
+eagerly called one young man, rising hastily and coming forward. "Benson,
+I'm glad to see you.  And you, Hastings.  And you, Somers."
+
+"Didn't know you knew the young gentlemen, McCrea," broke in Ulwin.
+
+"Don't know them?  When they made me the laughing-stock of every
+mess-room crowd in the Navy for months!" retorted McCrea.
+
+Jack, Hal and Eph were shaking hands with the speaker with a good deal
+of pleasure.
+
+It was Lieutenant McCrea, one-time watch officer on the battleship
+"Luzon."  At one time McCrea had doubted that submarine boats were,
+in all respects, as wonderful craft as was claimed.  The submarine
+boys had paid him back in most laughable fashion.  Lieutenant McCrea,
+at one time, had felt himself much aggrieved over the wholesome teasing
+of his brother officers in consequence; but he had long since learned
+to accept the whole incident as a good and deserved joke.
+
+Now, McCrea stood wringing the hands of the boys as though he had found
+long-lost friends.
+
+"What are you doing these days?" McCrea wanted to know.  "Anything
+besides testing new boats at Dunhaven?"
+
+"You must greet them as comrades, McCrea," continued Lieutenant Ulwin.
+
+"What?  Cadets at Annapolis?"
+
+In this case McCrea wondered at their being there, for cadets would be
+considered forward who visited an officers' club.
+
+"Benson is a lieutenant, his friends ensigns," replied Ulwin.
+
+"Come, come!" laughed McCrea.  "I'm easy--these boys know that.  But
+don't tell me--"
+
+"Fact, though," replied Ulwin.  "They hold special appointments, for
+some special duty or other.  I'm here, at the direction of the Navy
+Department, to introduce these young brother officers of ours, and to
+procure ten-day cards for them."
+
+By this time the news had spread.  A score of officers, young or
+middle-aged, were crowding about.  Ulwin had his hands full introducing
+the submarine boys.  Yet they stood the ordeal well.  The habit of
+command, based on discipline, had given these boys plenty of poise and
+self-possession. Nor were any attempts made, at that time, to have any
+good-humored fun with them.  Half a dozen officers representing foreign
+navies were present.  These, too, came in for introductions.  The
+foreigners were, mainly, military or naval officers attached to foreign
+embassies at Washington.
+
+"By Jove, Benson, I've had it in mind, for some time, that I wanted to
+meet you and grasp your hand," murmured Lieutenant Abercrombie, of the
+British Navy, as he drew Lieutenant Jack to one side.  "By Jove, old
+fellow, I want to meet you soon and have a good old talk all by
+ourselves."
+
+"That will be most agreeable to me," nodded Jack, pleasantly.
+
+"And your comrades, too," added Abercrombie.  "You know, you're already
+known on the other side.  Fact, I assure you.  Only the other day I
+picked up a London magazine and read quite an account of the doings of
+you three.  I was especially interested in an account of how you three
+discovered a way of leaving a submarine at the bottom and swimming to
+the surface; then diving and re-entering the craft while she's still on
+the bottom.  But your method is a secret, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes," smiled Jack.  "At least, the American Navy alone shares the
+secret with us."
+
+"Oh, I'm not asking it, you know, old fellow," Lieutenant Abercrombie
+assured him.
+
+"Is Mr. Benson here?" called a bell-boy, from the doorway.
+
+"Very much so," replied Lieutenant Ulwin, dryly.
+
+"May I give you a message, sir?" asked the bell-boy, coming closer.
+
+After excusing himself, Benson stepped aside with the boy.  Yet the
+latter spoke loudly enough for several to overhear.
+
+"There's a lady, downstairs at the door, would like to see you, sir.
+She says it is very, very important, sir."
+
+"Did she give any name?" inquired astonished Jack.
+
+"No, sir; she begged you would overlook that, sir, and just step down
+to the door for a few moments."
+
+"All right; I'll go," nodded Benson.  "But it looks queer."
+
+Excusing himself to his host, Ulwin, and to some of the officers with
+whom he had been chatting, the leader of the submarine boys went quickly
+to the coat-room for his hat, then descended in the elevator.
+
+"Vairee strange place, zis, for a lady to follow a zhentleman--to hees
+club," drawled a French captain.
+
+One or two of the others laughed, imagining that this was some flirtation
+in which the submarine boy had been engaged.  But Eph flared up a bit,
+looking very red, as he muttered:
+
+"It's only fair to tell you, gentlemen, that we submarine boys don't
+appreciate jokes at the expense of the finest fellow who ever lived--Mr.
+Jack Benson!"
+
+"Good boy" murmured Teal.
+
+Yet, when an hour had slipped by, and Benson had not returned, even his
+loyal comrades began to wonder a good deal.  From that frame of mind
+they passed on, at the end of another hour, to worry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE GIRL IN THE CAB
+
+
+As Jack reached the door of the United Service Club he found no one at
+the doorway.
+
+"That's strange," he muttered.
+
+But in another moment he looked down the street.  A hundred feet away
+stood a closed cab.  From it a woman leaned, beckoning slightly.
+
+Had she been veiled, Jack would have been instantly suspicious.
+
+But her face showed, and it was a young, fresh, pretty and wholesome
+looking face.
+
+"I don't know her, but she is very evidently a lady," thought Jack
+Benson, quickly.
+
+Accordingly, he stepped along the sidewalk, lifting his hat courteously
+as he neared the vehicle.
+
+"You are Mr. Benson?" inquired the young woman.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"I trust you will pardon my calling here, and sending you a message.  But
+it was very urgent that I see you at once--how urgent you cannot yet
+understand."
+
+"I am here, madam," Jack replied; not knowing what else to say.
+
+"I am going to make another strange request of you."
+
+"It is granted in advance, if possible."
+
+"Will you step inside with me, and drive a little way?" inquired the
+young woman.
+
+Jack glanced quickly at her.  Her face was flushed; evidently she was
+embarrassed.
+
+"Won't you tell me a little more, madam, about your reason for wishing
+to see me?" he suggested.
+
+"Yes; but not here--_please!_" she begged.  "I do not want to be seen
+about here.  I shall not detain you long, Mr. Benson.  All I ask is
+that you sit here beside me, and that we drive a little way, while I
+say a few words to you."
+
+Jack hesitated.  He did not like the look of the adventure.  Yet, on
+the other hand, it was hard to see harm or danger in it.  The young
+woman was evidently, as he had at first guessed, a lady.
+
+"Then you do not feel able to tell me, here, what you wish to speak
+with me about?" he inquired.
+
+"I shall begin as soon as we start on our drive," she promised.  "Oh,
+please do not refuse me.  You cannot imagine how much is at stake--for
+me!"
+
+Though Jack Benson felt the peculiarity of the request from a stranger,
+he was unable to see how harm could result from his being kind.
+
+"Very good, then," he agreed.  "I will do my best by listening to you."
+
+After he had entered the cab, and had taken the seat, beside her, the
+young woman turned to look at him keenly.
+
+Jack, for his part, saw that she was rather better dressed than the
+average.  He imagined her to be the daughter of a family in comfortable
+circumstances.
+
+"You do not know who I am, of course?" she began.
+
+"No, madam."
+
+"But you do know one in whom I am much interested," she continued.
+
+For some reason that he could not explain to himself, Jack Benson began
+to feel very uncomfortable under the witching battery of her handsome
+eyes.
+
+"Who is he?" inquired the submarine boy.
+
+"You know him as--"
+
+She paused, as though stricken with sudden reluctance.
+
+"Well?"
+
+"The name by which you know him is Millard."
+
+Had Jack Benson been lashed at that instant with a whip he could not have
+been more astounded.
+
+"Who?" he cried.  "What?  That in fam--"
+
+He checked himself abruptly.
+
+"It was kind of you to stop as you did," the young woman declared,
+gratefully.  "The man whom you know as Millard is my promised husband."
+
+"I'm sor--I mean, I'm astonished," sputtered Jack Benson.
+
+Then he turned to take another keen look into her face.
+
+"What do you want to say to me about Millard?" he demanded.
+
+"I ask you--I beg you--to aid him to escape from Washington--from
+the country.  Yet, to do that, all he needs is to get safely out of the
+District of Columbia.  You know that he is here in Washington, or I
+would not have told you as much."
+
+"Does Millard find it so very difficult to get out of Washington?"
+queried Jack, grimly.
+
+"If he did not, Mr. Benson, believe me I would never come to the enemy
+to beseech mercy.  Probably I am not telling you anything you do not
+already know," she went on, rather bitterly.  "But every avenue of escape
+from Washington is blocked by Secret Service men.  It is not so difficult
+to hide in the city, but to get out of it is impossible--to-day."
+
+"Madam," Jack answered, softly, "it would be my desire to give you
+every bit of aid and comfort possible.  However, what you ask is simply
+impossible.  For one thing, it would be in direct defiance of my--"
+
+"Oath" he was about to add, but checked him self.  On account of their
+knowing that he was to be sought at the United Service Club it was
+possible--even likely--that the enemy knew of his actual connection
+with the Navy.  Yet, Benson did not propose to supply the other side
+with any gratis information.  So he added:
+
+"Contrary to my duty as an American.  I am loyal to the Flag, madam,"
+the boy continued.  "Do you know the nature of Millard's offense?"
+
+"No-o-o-o; that is, not exactly."
+
+"Do you wish me to tell you?"
+
+"Why--he--he--told me it was some dispute over international affairs,"
+stammered the young woman.
+
+"Do you feel yourself a loyal American?" asked Jack, looking at her
+curiously.
+
+"Yes!" she answered, without an instant's hesitation, looking straight
+into his eyes, almost defiantly.
+
+"And you love this man, Millard?"
+
+"Yes!" Yet her declaration was not so emphatic as it would have been a
+few moments before.
+
+Jack Benson sighed.
+
+"Would you love a man who had betrayed his country's flag?" he asked,
+presently, in a very low voice.
+
+"Has Don--has the man you know as Millard offered to do that?"
+
+It was not suspicion, but incredulity that rang in her voice.
+
+Jack Benson knew, now, that he was dealing with a woman who knew herself
+to be a patriot--a lover of her country.
+
+"I don't know that I have any right to say anything," Jack answered,
+evasively.  "Mr. Millard is a civil engineer, isn't he?"
+
+"Yes, and a mechanical engineer, too," the girl admitted, without
+attempt at concealment "As you also doubtless know, he served, once,
+with a revolutionary army in Guatemala.  It is in some sort of scrape
+like this that he finds him self now.  Some trouble that he has gotten
+himself into with this government in order to befriend the
+revolutionists of some Central American republic."
+
+"Did Millard tell you so?" demanded Jack Benson, his eyes now very wide
+open.
+
+"He let me believe as much," the girl replied, one hand toying with a
+fold of her dress, while she glanced down.  "And that is the truth,
+is it not?"
+
+"No!" broke, half-angrily, from young Benson.  The passion would have
+rung in his denial, but he remembered that he was talking to this girl
+about her betrothed husband.
+
+"You spoke of the Flag a moment ago," cried the girl, suddenly, and
+gazing searchingly into the boy's eyes.  "Do you mean to tell me that
+Don--that Mr. Millard would be engaged in any work hostile to his
+own country?"
+
+"Is the one we call Millard an American citizen?" asked Benson.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then--"
+
+Jack came to an abrupt stop after that one word.  He would not tell the
+dreadful news to this spirited young woman.  It was not necessary.
+
+But she became insistent
+
+"Mr. Benson," she cried, "this has gone too far not to have a full
+explanation.  Has--has Mr. Millard done aught to betray the United
+States?  For that matter, how could he?"
+
+"Madam," Benson replied, gravely, "no Central American republic would
+want charts of our fortified harbors, or notes concerning the
+fortifications, the harbor mines, and so on, for the very simple reason
+that no Central American republic would ever be equal to the task of
+attempting to invade the United States."
+
+"Did Mr. Millard steal such plans--make such notes?"
+
+She hissed the question sharply, her face now deathly white.
+
+"That is the charge against him," Jack nodded.
+
+"Did he do it?"
+
+"I caught him at it, opposite Fort Craven," young Benson answered.
+
+A low, smothered cry escaped the girl.  Her head rested against the side
+of the carriage as though her brain were reeling.  But at length she
+spoke.
+
+"You--you would not deceive me," she faltered.  "Yet tell me more."
+
+"I can't;" answered Jack, with a shake of his head.  "Further than
+that, I cannot go."
+
+"Oh, I see," she nodded, "and I do not blame you.  You feel that,
+whatever you told me, I would tell him.  But I wouldn't!"
+
+Though the girl's face was still fearfully pallid, her eyes, as she
+turned to gaze into the submarine boy's face, flashed with a new fire.
+
+Then, after a brief pause:
+
+"Whatever he is, or has done, I am an American," she added, quietly.
+
+"This has been a miserable fifteen minutes for me." responded Jack
+Benson.  "I have been torn between the impulse to mind my own business,
+and the fear that you may be throwing yourself away on a man whom you
+would promptly learn to despise."
+
+"I shall never give Donald Graves another thought as a lover," the girl
+rejoined, promptly.  "Nor shall I shelter him.  I am going to him now!"
+
+"Then you have an appointment with him?  You know where to find him?"
+
+"Yes," replied the girl, looking at the submarine boy rather queerly.
+"Do you care to go with me to meet Donald Graves--the one you knew
+as Millard?  But I am stupid, or worse.  That would be to run you into
+needless danger--for such a man as I now know Donald Graves to be
+would be desperate."
+
+"I am not afraid of him," retorted Jack quietly.  "If you fear only
+for me, I beg you to take me to him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+DAISY HUSTON DECIDES FOR THE FLAG
+
+
+"It is a somewhat lonely place, on the outskirts of the city," warned
+the girl.  "Mr. Graves had thought that, if no other chance offered,
+he might possibly get away by leaving that house and taking to the
+country roads.  For he knows that, if he takes a train at any point, he
+won't ride five miles before he'll find himself in the clutches of a
+Secret Service man.  Oh, he knows how well the trains and the
+steamboats will be watched.  He dreads, even, that the country roads
+will be watched."
+
+"I don't know anything about the Secret Service lines that are out,"
+Jack confessed, honestly.  "Yet I imagine that every possible precaution
+has been taken to capture Millard--or Graves."
+
+"You do not know my name," cried the girl, as though struck by a sudden
+thought.  "Mr. Benson, you have been wrapped in so much mystery, so
+much deceit, so much lying and treachery that I won't even have you
+guess whether I am telling you the truth.  Here is my card-case.   Take
+out a card for yourself."
+
+The request was so much like a command that Benson obeyed.  On the card,
+in Old English script, he read:
+
+"Miss Daisy Huston."
+
+"I thank you, Miss Huston," he acknowledged, gravely, handing back her
+card-case.
+
+"Will you signal the driver to stop?" she requested.  They were now
+driving through the western part of Washington.
+
+When the driver found himself signaled he reined up, then came to the
+cab door.
+
+"You know where to go?" she said.
+
+"Yes," nodded the man.
+
+"Drive there, then."
+
+The driver whipped up his horses to a better speed, the vehicle bowling
+along now.
+
+"I very much fear that I am running you into danger," declared Daisy
+Huston, soberly.  "Mr. Benson, if you decide to leave the cab, or to
+have me take you back to the center of the city, I shall not imagine
+you to be lacking in courage."
+
+"I cannot be in any greater danger than you are, Miss Huston," Benson
+ventured, with a smile.
+
+"Oh, it is much different in my case," argued the girl.  "Donald Graves
+would not attack a woman, especially the woman he had professed to love."
+
+"Miss Huston, do you feel like discussing this matter any further?"
+hazarded the young acting naval lieutenant.
+
+"Yes; as much as you wish."
+
+"I confess to being a bit curious."
+
+"About what?"
+
+"Did Millard--Graves, I mean, have any great reason to need money?
+More, I mean, than he could earn by honest work?"
+
+"Yes," admitted Miss Daisy.  "My mother is dead.  Under her will I
+inherit a considerable little fortune when I am twenty-five.  But it
+is solely on condition that I have my father's permission to marry the
+man of my choice.  I could remain single until twenty-five, but I am
+only nineteen, and Mr. Graves complained that it would be an
+eternity to wait."
+
+"Then your father did not approve Millard?  I am going to call him that
+because the other name is unfamiliar."
+
+"My father feared that Donald was a fortune hunter.  He said he would
+be satisfied if Donald could show that he were rich in his own name."
+
+"So, then, Graves, or Millard, hit upon the plan of stealing our harbor
+fortification secrets and selling them to another government," said
+Jack, meditatingly.  "Yet I am puzzled to understand how he found the
+chance.  There are no foreigners openly engaged in buying our national
+secrets."
+
+"I think I can explain all that, though it will be but guess-work,"
+replied Daisy Huston, thoughtfully.  "My father was for some years
+minister to Sweden.  He is still well acquainted among foreign diplomats
+here in Washington.  Some of them are often at our house.  Donald must
+have met one there who tempted him, or pointed the way to a fortune.
+Yes; I am certain that must be the answer."
+
+"Did--but perhaps you don't like my asking such questions?"
+
+"No; I do not mind--now," replied Daisy Huston.  "I began to feel as
+though I had been an innocent party to Donald Graves's wrongdoing.
+When I went to try to see you, this afternoon, I supposed only that
+Donald had gotten into trouble through some filibustering expedition
+to Central America.  I did not look upon that as so serious, you see.
+But selling the national secrets is quite another matter," she added,
+bitterly.  "I shall never care for the man again.  I have wrenched
+him from my heart in these last few minutes.  So you may ask me any
+questions that will help to clear up the matter."
+
+"Thank you, Miss Huston.  Then did Graves, or Millard, as I call him,
+express any hope of becoming suddenly well to do?"
+
+"Yes; and now I can understand how he has lied to me.  He let me believe
+that he hoped to profit through mining concessions to Americans that
+would follow the overthrow of one of the petty despots in Central
+America."
+
+"Yet Millard has been away from Washington much, has he not?"
+
+"Most of the time during the last four months.  He generally managed
+to get over here for one day out of the seven; sometimes two days at a
+time."
+
+"I believe the whole matter is becoming rather clear in my mind.  I do
+not mind telling you, Miss Huston, how I first came to know the
+fellow.  He was over at our shipyard in Dunhaven, trying to get
+employment on the construction of submarine boats.  But something in
+his manner made us suspect him, and he didn't get near the secrets of
+any of our boats."
+
+There was one other thing, however, that Benson felt he would like to
+have cleared up.  So he inquired:
+
+"How did you know that I was at the United Service Club?  Did Millard
+know?  Did he tell you to go there?"
+
+"He guessed where you might be.  He asked me to drive to the club
+first; if you were not there, then I was to drive to the Arlington.
+Failing to find you at either place, I was to go back to the hotel in
+the evening.  In the event of my finding you at the hotel I was to see
+you in the ladies' parlor.  But, oh!  What can you think of me, Mr.
+Benson, to have come to you on such an errand--on a mission to save a
+betrayer of his Flag?"
+
+"You came innocently, Miss Huston; that is all that I can understand.
+And your whole attitude, since you discovered the truth, has been that
+of a loyal American girl who would crush her heart, even, for her
+country's honor."
+
+"It isn't going to be as hard as you think, perhaps," she smiled,
+bitterly, "to cast the man out of my heart.  The man that I now know
+Donald Graves to be never was in my heart.  There is no room, there,
+for a traitor."
+
+She glanced out of the cab at the scene through which they were passing.
+Jack Benson looked at the same time.
+
+"I am terribly uneasy," she confessed.  "Perhaps, even now, Mr. Benson,
+you had much better leave this carriage and let me go forward alone.  I
+am a woman, and therefore safe.  But I fear--yes, actually fear for
+your life when he finds out!"
+
+"Don't be at all uneasy about me, Miss Huston," begged Jack, with cool
+confidence.  "I have had rather a sturdy training in the art of taking
+care of myself."
+
+Though he did not allow the girl to see the motion, Jack felt stealthily
+at his right hip pocket.  Yes; the loaded revolver was there.  Jack did
+not believe much in the practice of carrying concealed weapons.  He had
+great contempt both for the nerve and the judgment of fool boys who
+carried revolvers, loaded or otherwise.  But just now the situation was
+different.  Jack Benson was an acting lieutenant in the United States
+Navy.  Just before leaving the Navy Department he and his comrades had
+each been advised to take a proffered weapon and carry it against the
+chance that they might find Millard--or Graves--in Washington, and
+find themselves under the necessity of taking him prisoner.
+
+"Spies and traitors are taken alive or dead," the official had remarked
+who had handed them the weapons.
+
+"How much further have we to go?" Jack inquired, as the cab turned down
+a country lane.
+
+"Only a very short distance, now," replied Daisy Huston.
+
+"Jove, but she's a stunning girl for nerve and principle," thought
+Lieutenant Jack, admiringly.  "She's going, now, to what must be the
+tragedy of her plans and hopes, yet she has her color back again,
+and looks as composed as though out only for an airing!"
+
+"There is the house," almost whispered the girl, at last, resting a
+steady, cool hand on his arm.
+
+Jack looked and saw the place--a little, oldfashioned house, standing
+in among trees, some hundred feet from the road.  In that swift glance
+he also noted that there were no ether buildings near.
+
+Daisy Huston did not ask whether the young man at her side proposed to
+try to arrest the man he sought.  She was too discreet to pry into his
+plans.
+
+Up into the little yard before the house the horses trotted.  Then,
+just as the cab was coming to a stop, the driver cracked his whip-lash
+twice.
+
+Immediately the door flew open.  Millard, as Jack Benson knew him,
+stepped out jauntily, a smile of delight on his face.
+
+"Good enough, Daisy," he cried, as he strode toward the cab.  "I see
+that you have won Benson over to our side.  He shall be my friend,
+after this.  But, Daisy, _what_--"
+
+For the girl had sprung lightly out ere Jack Benson could assist her.
+The girl now stood, drawn to her full height, yet without affecting
+any theatrical pose.  But over her lips hovered a smile of cool disdain
+that the look in her eyes heightened.
+
+"Don't lie to me any more, Donald Graves," commanded the girl, steadily,
+"and don't deceive yourself.  Both tasks, I know, will be hard for a
+man so vile that he'd sell his country's Flag!"
+
+Millard stared at her in growing horror.  Then anger rushed to his face.
+
+"Daisy!" he gasped.  "Have you betrayed me?  Have you brought Benson
+here as an enemy?"
+
+Daisy did not answer her former lover.  She continued to gaze at him
+with an irony of expression that sent the hot blood mounting to his
+head.
+
+"Can't you speak?" he demanded.  "Then, Benson, why don't you talk?"
+
+"Because," replied Jack, "I am waiting for Miss Huston to say to you
+all, or as little, as she cares to say."
+
+"Speak, then!" commanded Millard, turning imperiously to the girl.
+
+"And my command to you," retorted the girl, "is different.  Silence!
+Never again address me, you traitor to your Flag!"
+
+Millard was swift to realize the fullness of the girl's contempt.  He
+knew that everything between them was over.
+
+"Come, come, then, girl!" he uttered, harshly.  "It is time for you to
+be gone!  Step to the cab and get away from here, for I would spare you
+what is to follow--my reckoning with Benson!"
+
+He clapped his hands.  The door opened, and four men stepped out.  Their
+type was not hard to determine.  They were of the scum of
+humanity--ready for any desperate deed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE PART OF ABERCROMBIE, R.N.
+
+
+"Come, girl, you must go!" commanded Millard, harshly.
+
+"I will not," she replied, coldly, "until my escort is ready to go with
+me."
+
+"He will not go with you," replied Millard, significantly.  "And you
+must not remain.  What is to be done here is no thing for a dainty woman
+to see."
+
+"Mr. Benson," appealed the girl, "will you enter the cab first?"
+
+"If he does, the cab will not leave," sneered Millard.
+
+All this while the four men who had just come from the house were
+stealthily grouping themselves.  Jack watched them alertly.  He did not
+intend to be taken unawares, yet he hesitated to draw his pistol while
+Miss Huston was there.
+
+"Go, girl!" Millard ordered again.
+
+"I have told you, already, that I shall go only when Mr. Benson gives
+the word and accompanies me," replied the girl, white but courageous.
+
+"Then we won't waste more time," laughed the wretch, harshly.  "Since
+you will stay, then you must be a witness of what you have brought on
+my worst foe!  Close in, men--get him!"
+
+As the men sprang to obey, and Jack dodged nimbly back, Daisy Huston
+uttered a piercing scream.  The next thing she did was wholly natural.
+Under the intense strain of her feelings the girl fainted.
+
+"Take her!" nodded Millard, to the driver, who was plainly one of the
+desperate lot.  "Take her from here as fast as you can."
+
+The driver, ready for his work, snatched up the girl's light form.
+
+"Have a care what you do--all of you!" cried Jack Benson, warningly,
+and now, in his hand, the revolver gleamed.
+
+But one of the wretches, darting in at Jack's right, from behind, aimed
+a blow with a cudgel at the weapon.  He struck it from the young
+lieutenant's hand.
+
+Down to the ground it fell, but Lieutenant Benson was as quick as
+thought, now.
+
+He bent over, snatching up the weapon, then ducked away from a follow-up
+blow at his own head, and sprang back.
+
+"You first, then, Millard!" cried the young acting naval officer.
+
+Full of purpose, Lieutenant Jack pressed the trigger.  It stuck.  No
+report followed.  That blow from the cudgel had jammed the cylinder.
+
+Having dropped the senseless form of Daisy Huston in the cab the driver
+sprang to the box, lashing the horses, just as Lieutenant Benson
+discovered the uselessness of his weapon as a firearm.
+
+Then, indeed, young Benson knew that this must be a fight to the very
+death.  Yet he was a naval officer at heart, as much as by special
+appointment.  At a time like this he held life cheaply.
+
+The first man to get within reach was laid flat by a blow with the butt
+of Jack's revolver.
+
+Instantly young Benson wheeled, to strike at another pressing foe.
+Instead, he received a glancing though painful blow on his own left
+shoulder.  Ere the assailant could recover, however, Benson leaped at
+him and would have felled him had not Millard himself leaped in,
+striking up the young naval officer's arm.
+
+Once more Lieutenant Jack leaped back.  His whole body was alert, nerves
+and muscles responding magnificently.  He fairly vibrated defense.
+
+"Close in on him, men--surround him!" snarled Millard.  "You've got to
+get him!  We haven't many minutes left.  We don't know at what instant
+to look for interference."
+
+Jack landed effectively on another of the rascals.  Just as he was
+wheeling, however, to ward off the attack of another, a stick landed
+against his left knee, partly crippling him.
+
+In moving backward Benson almost stumbled over a stone half the size of
+his head.
+
+Right there, in the same movement with which he thrust the revolver into
+one of his pockets, he bent down, snatched up the heavy stone, and held
+it poised over his head.
+
+"Now, come on!  Now, close in!" cried Jack Benson, exulting.  "The first
+man who gets too close has his head split open!  Who wants it?"
+
+His usually, good-humored face was transformed by the fiery rage of
+battle.
+
+Surely there was some of the old Norseman streak left in Jack Benson's
+make-up.
+
+As he stood there, keenly alert, ready to heave the rock, he looked like
+a young Thor armed with massive stone hammer.
+
+"Spread!  Get in back of him!" yelled Millard, hoarsely.  "I'll take
+the position of attack in front.  Down him!"
+
+"Guess which way I'm going to heave this stone!" cried Jack, tauntingly,
+as he half wheeled, so as to watch those trying to steal a march in
+his rear.
+
+"Bosh!  You can soon stop that, men!" jeered Millard, suddenly.  "Fall
+back and get a fistful of stones.  Rain them in on the youngster at a
+safe distance.  One of you will soon hit him and send him down!"
+
+Young Benson gasped inwardly with dismay, though his face did not
+blanch.  Millard's followers drew back to obey.
+
+Yes!  These fellows could throw small stones from a much greater distance
+than the young lieutenant could hurl the large one.  They had but to
+keep up this fire for a few seconds when one of them was certain to hit
+him in the head, putting him out of the fight.
+
+Jack Benson dropped the big stone, though he stood over it.  Like a
+flash his revolver came out again.  Aiming at Millard, the young naval
+officer made frantic efforts to make the cylinder revolve.  But the
+weapon proved to be hopelessly jammed.
+
+"Now, keep on volleying the youngster with until you have him down and
+wholly out!" yelled Millard, hoarsely.
+
+The air seemed filled with stones.  Jack hopped about as nimbly as
+possible, dodging all he could.  Yet one part of his body after another
+was hit.
+
+Rat-a-tat-tat!  Jack hardly comprehended what this new noise meant when
+it grew in volume.  Then a horseman rode into the yard at a charge.
+
+"One down!" yelled the rider, with savage glee, as he drove his mount
+squarely against one of the wretches, bowling him over and underfoot.
+
+Hardly seeming to veer, the rider made for another fellow, and barely
+missed him.
+
+Just a second later, so it seemed, this valiant rider hauled the horse
+on its haunches, and swung back, heading for another wretch.
+
+Millard leaped at the horseman, a stone in his uplifted fist.
+
+But Jack Benson saw him, and a well-planted blow sent Millard to the
+ground.
+
+"Bully good of you, Benson, old chap!" called a hearty voice.  Then the
+horseman spurred forward, running down another of Benson's late
+assailants.  The two remaining bolted as fast as they could, go.
+
+"Mr. Abercrombie!" cried Lieutenant Jack.
+
+"Yes, it's I: and jolly glad I got here in good time," laughed the
+British naval officer, whom this brief rollicking battle had made as
+gleeful as a boy.
+
+"But how on earth did you happen to turn up?" asked Jack, a feeling of
+mystery coming over him after he had glanced at Millard and had made
+sure that the latter would "sleep" for some time to come.
+
+"Why, I was out for my afternoon canter, dear old fellow," bubbled
+Lieutenant Abercrombie, R.N.  "I was coming down the road at a hard
+trot, don't you know, when a cab rolled by.  A young woman--and a
+deuced pretty one--thrust her head out and shrieked at me.  What
+could I do?  It was deuced extraordinary, and I had to do something
+quickly, so I rode alongside the cab and told the driver to hold up.
+I must have looked unusually menacing, don't you know, for, by Jove,
+the fellow obeyed me.  Then I reached up and yanked him down off the
+cab.  The fellow really started to blackguard me, while the young
+woman was shouting something at me at the same time I had to silence
+the fellow, don't you know, so I could understand the young lady.
+So I struck him over the head with the butt of my riding whip.  My
+word, I must have hit the blackguard hard, for he just curled up and
+lay down.  The young lady sprang out of the cab and begged me to hurry
+down here.  She looked able to take care of herself, so I just left my
+revolver with her, and, by Jove, here I am--and deuced glad of it.
+Upon my word, Benson, dear old fellow, all the luck seemed to be
+running against you."
+
+"It was," Jack admitted, dryly.  "But now I've got the man I came after.
+I've got to keep him, too," added Lieutenant Benson, gravely.
+
+As he spoke, the submarine boy drew a pair of handcuffs from an inner
+pocket.
+
+"By Jove, do naval youngsters in this country carry such jewelry?"
+murmured Lieutenant Abercrombie, R.N.
+
+"They do, I guess, when they're engaged on work like mine at present,"
+smiled Lieutenant Jack, United States Navy.
+
+"Now, then, by Jove, I think I'd better go back to the young lady,"
+suddenly decided Abercrombie, for Millard still showed no signs of
+recovering his senses.  One of the other two men who had been ridden
+down now recovered enough to begin to crawl away furtively.
+
+"Do you want that chap?" asked Abercrombie.
+
+"I have no facilities for keeping him a prisoner," Jack answered.
+"For that matter, I guess he's nothing but a hired tough.  The
+Washington police can find and take care of him at their convenience."
+
+"Good enough," nodded the British lieutenant.  "And now--"
+
+"Would you mind if I go to her, instead?" inquired Benson, hastily.
+
+"Not in the least, dear old fellow.  And, while you're gone, I'll
+constitute myself a special 'bobby' to look after this chap of yours
+in the bracelets."
+
+So Jack hurried off up the road, wondering how Daisy Huston fared
+with a revolver and a hostile cabman.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+"FOREIGN TRADE" BECOMES BRISK
+
+
+The cab horses were browsing quietly by the roadside.
+
+Miss Daisy looked anything but perturbed.
+
+In fact, she had passed all uneasiness of spirit on to the cab driver.
+That worthy had come back to his senses, but Miss Huston had compelled
+him to sit on the ground, his back to a tree.  She stood a few yards
+away, watching the surly fellow and holding the pistol as though it were
+not the first time she had had such a weapon in her hand.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you've come, Mr. Benson!" cried the girl, with true
+feminine relief.  "I was so worried about you.  But you're not
+hurt--badly.  I hurried a horseman on to you.  He reached you?"
+
+"Yes, thank you," nodded Lieutenant Benson.  "And now, Miss Huston, I
+must inform you that we have Millard--your Donald Graves--a prisoner
+and manacled.  I must first find a way of getting you back into town.
+Then I must turn Millard over to the authorities."
+
+"Why can't he go back in the same cab with me?" asked Miss Huston,
+quickly.
+
+"You--could you endure that?"
+
+"Yes," replied the girl, bravely.  "I took you to him.  I sent the
+assistance that enabled you to take him prisoner.  Do not fear for me,
+Mr. Benson."
+
+"By Jove, but you're clear grit, Miss Huston!" Lieutenant Jack cried,
+admiringly.
+
+"Clear American, I hope," retorted the girl.  "Why should men be the
+only ones who can do or dare for the Flag?"
+
+"Will you let me have the revolver, Miss Huston?"
+
+"Gladly."
+
+"Thank you.  Now, if you will get inside he cab again."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I'll sit with the driver and watch him,"
+
+Jack kept his eye on the surly fellow until Miss Huston was inside the
+cab.
+
+"Now, fellow, you get up on the box, and handle the reins from the left
+side," ordered the young naval officer.
+
+"I always drive on the right side o' the box," came the sulky retort.
+
+"Undoubtedly; but you're driving on the left side this afternoon,"
+returned Benson, with a look of significance.  "By the way, did I
+mention the fact, yet, that I have an uncertain and bad temper?  Now,
+climb up into your place, and don't you attempt to start until I'm
+beside you and give the word!"
+
+A moment later Jack Benson sat beside the driver, holding the revolver
+in his right hand.
+
+"Now, back to the house," spoke the young naval officer.
+
+Without a word the driver turned his horses about, heading back.
+
+"Here we are!" came, cheerily, from Lieutenant Abercrombie, R.N.
+
+Millard was sitting up, a black scowl on his face as Jack and the others
+appeared.
+
+"Now, I've got to get this outfit back into Washington, somehow," mused
+Jack, after noticing that Abercrombie had allowed the other thug to
+crawl away to safety.
+
+"Why, of course, dear old fellow, you under stand that I'm helping,"
+hinted the British officer.
+
+"That's mighty good of you," murmured Jack.  "Then we can do it easily."
+
+Daisy Huston had stepped from the cab.  She stood regarding the scowling
+captive.
+
+"I'm glad I know you, Donald; glad I found you out in time," she said,
+quietly, gazing hard at him.
+
+"I thought you a friend," Millard retorted, bitterly.  "Great Heavens,
+Daisy, if you had been on my side through thick and thin, in good report
+and ill, I could have defied all these idiots in Washington.  What an
+ally you would have been!  But you chose to be an enemy."
+
+"An enemy to my country's enemies, yes," replied the girl, steadily.
+
+"Do you hate me, Daisy?"
+
+"I don't know," the girl answered, thoughtfully.  "Do you hate me, now,
+Donald Graves?"
+
+"I wish I knew," uttered the man.  "But it's hard to turn love like mine
+into hate at a moment's notice.  Daisy, the nights are coming when you'll
+wake up with a frightened start, and sob as you remember how you turned
+me over to--"
+
+"To the officers of the country that you have done your best to betray,"
+broke in the girl, firmly.  "No, no, Donald!  Do not imagine that I
+shall shed any tears for you, seen or unseen.  Mr. Benson, I am ready,
+if you wish to place--your--your--prisoner in the cab beside me."
+
+"It seems like a beastly outrage to do it," muttered Jack, full of
+misgivings.
+
+"Not at all," declared the girl, steadily.  "I am glad to see this man
+on his way to the bar of justice."
+
+Jack assisted Daisy Huston, with the utmost deference, to a seat inside
+the vehicle.  Then he turned to motion to handcuffed Millard--or
+Graves--that he was to take the seat beside the woman he had hoped
+to make his wife.
+
+"I'll ride close alongside, to make sure there's no unpleasant conduct
+toward Miss Huston," volunteered Mr. Abercrombie.
+
+Jack Benson again climbed to the cab box.
+
+"You know I have the pistol," muttered Jack, showing the driver the
+weapon.  "There's no need to ride through the town with the weapon in
+my hand.  But, if you try to cut up any tantrums, you may be sure
+you'll find your own wrists inside of handcuffs."
+
+"I know when I ain't got no show at all," growled the sullen driver.
+
+"Drive ahead, then--into Washington, and straight to police
+headquarters."
+
+Lieutenant Abercrombie, R.N., jogged his own mount steadily alongside,
+so that he could at all times command a view of the interior.
+
+Millard--Donald Graves--would have opened some conversation with
+Daisy Huston, but the disdainful girl cut him short.
+
+As the cab rolled into the busier streets of Washington Lieutenant
+Abercrombie drew a little further away from the cab, in order not to
+attract attention, though he still remained actively on guard.
+
+The prisoner's manacled hands did not show to the people passing on the
+sidewalks.
+
+So, altogether, no passersby thought to turn to look after the cab.
+
+Just as the little procession turned a street corner to drive direct
+to the door of police headquarters, Abercrombie waved a hand carelessly
+to three pedestrians on the sidewalk.
+
+"Abercrombie!" cried Lieutenant Ulwin.  "And there's Benson on the box
+of that hack!"
+
+"Come right along into headquarters," whispered Abercrombie.  "Don't
+make any noise."
+
+Wondering until they were fairly agape, Ulwin, Hal and Eph drew up at
+the cab door as Jack, after only a brief nod to them, opened the door
+and handed out Miss Daisy Huston.
+
+Lieutenant Abercrombie, having given his horse to a boy down the street
+to hold, now came forward, raising his hat, to take charge of the
+young lady.
+
+"Come along, Millard," called Jack Benson, quietly, and the prisoner
+got out, while the British officer stepped down the street with his
+fair companion to find another carriage in which she could return home.
+
+Inside Jack marched his prisoner up to the railing in one of the rooms.
+The young naval officer at once produced his credentials and displayed
+them to the police official in charge.
+
+"Now, with your permission, sir," Jack went on, courteously, "I will
+use your telephone, and inform the Navy Department of the prisoner who
+awaits their action here."
+
+Five minutes later this had been done.  Benson turned to Lieutenant
+Abercrombie, saying:
+
+"I must apologize for not having thought to return your revolver as
+soon as we entered."
+
+"I would beg you to keep the weapon, dear old fellow, if it would be
+of any use to you," replied the British officer.
+
+And now Hal and Eph found chance to explain that they, worried by Jack
+Benson's disappearance, had at last started down to headquarters to
+see if they could learn of any mishap to him, or of any other explanation
+for his long absence.
+
+"Well, it's all over now," muttered Hal.  "Millard--or Graves--or
+whatever other name the fellow may be using at this moment--is safe
+in a cell downstairs."
+
+"We thought, once before, that we had him bottled up safely," chuckled
+Lieutenant Jack.  "Mr. Abercrombie, how am I ever going to express my
+thanks to you?"
+
+"I should feel extremely insulted, dear old fellow, if you thought it
+necessary to thank me," retorted the Briton, heartily.
+
+"It will be dark, soon," interposed Lieutenant Ulwin.  "I suggest that
+the best thing any of us can do is to turn toward the club.  I feel
+certain that the chef will have a famous dinner there to-night."
+
+"We haven't any evening clothes, either citizen or uniform, in
+Washington," interposed Jack Benson, who knew something of the
+formalities of the service during the dinner hour.
+
+"Come, just the same," begged Ulwin.  "The members don't expect too
+much of fellows who are traveling."
+
+Jack was glad of the walk, because it helped to take the stiffness out of
+the knee that had been struck.
+
+"You let the cab driver go, did you!" asked Eph, as the submarine boys
+walked along together.
+
+"Yes," nodded Jack.  "I had no orders concerning anyone like him.  He's
+only some worthless character hired for the job.  He didn't have any
+hand in the bigger job of collecting and selling harbor defense plans,
+you may be sure."
+
+As the party re-entered the club they found a large attendance.  Nor
+was it many moments before a be-moustached German officer approached
+the group.
+
+"Oh, Herr Ulwin," he asked, "can you oblige me by excusing Herr Benson
+for a moment or two?  And will you come with me, Herr Benson, to meet
+a friend who wishes to shake your hand?"
+
+Jack slipped away with the German officer, who conducted him to another
+room.
+
+"I think you have met my friend before," explained the German, and
+wheeled the submarine boy straight up in front of Herr Professor Radberg.
+
+"You see," smiled the professor, "we meet again."
+
+"It is a great pleasure, surely," declared Jack, as he shook hands.  The
+officer stepped a few paces away.
+
+"And now, when, my dear young friend, are you going to give me your
+word that you and your comrades will enter the German torpedo service?
+I have somewhat better terms to offer you than when we last met.  I have
+since been authorized to promise you that you shall enter the German
+service as commissioned officers, and that you shall all three be in
+line for promotion as merit earns it.  So, then, it is all settled, is
+it not!"
+
+Herr Professor Radberg rubbed his hands with a self-satisfied air.
+
+"Yes," Lieutenant Jack admitted, "it is all settled.  But not the way
+that you would wish, Herr Professor Radberg.  There may be soldiers
+of fortune who follow any flag, for hire.  But we submarine boys would
+not enter your German naval service if you created all three of us
+high admirals at the outset."
+
+"Admirals?" cried Herr Professor Radberg, protestingly.  "Oh, but that,
+my dear young friend, would be quite impossible."
+
+"You are wasting your time with us, sir," Jack continued, firmly.  "We
+may, one of these days, be asked to enter the American service
+permanently.  We would not enter any other country's service, no matter
+what the bait.  Do not give the matter any further thought, please, for
+we won't."
+
+The German officer had been standing a few paces away, twirling his
+moustache and frowning.  Now, he came forward.
+
+"Herr Benson," he broke in, "I fear that you are so young that you do
+not fully understand the honor and dignity of being officers in the
+German service."
+
+"Very likely we do not, Captain," Jack returned, with a bow.  "And it
+is absolutely certain that we shall never find out from experience."
+
+Lieutenant Jack excused himself, turning to seek his friends.  As
+Benson entered the reading room once more he came upon Eph and another
+whose face was decidedly familiar.  It was the Chevalier d'Ouray.
+
+"Just in time, Jack," nodded Eph.  "Tell the Chev. for me, please as
+he doesn't seem to understand my talk, that we wouldn't even give the
+slightest consideration to his idea that we should enter the French
+naval service in the submarine division."
+
+"It is quite hopeless, Chevalier," laughed Jack Benson, shaking his
+head.  "The honor is quite enough to turn our heads, but we can serve
+only the United States."
+
+The Chevalier d'Ouray made a low bow, then turned away, for others
+were approaching.
+
+"Where is Hal?" asked Jack.
+
+"Crickety!  Look at him over there, talking to that little Japanese,"
+muttered Eph, inclining his head toward a corner.
+
+Hal and a Japanese were talking earnestly.  At any rate, the little
+brown man was.  Hal was listening, occasionally shaking his head.
+Then Hastings happened to espy his chums.  He turned to the Japanese,
+to take his leave, but the little brown man followed him across the
+floor, still talking in low tones.
+
+"Captain Nakasura has been trying to interest me in the idea that we
+three go over to Japan, under a three years' contract, to act as
+instructors and advisers in submarine work," Hal told his comrades.
+
+"And I have high hope that you will see matter same as I do," smiled
+the Japanese attache persistently.
+
+"We shan't," Jack declared, shaking his head, emphatically.  "Captain,
+you are the third, representing also the third nation, that has just
+approached us on this matter.  We shall serve no other country than
+our own."
+
+"But my government," urged the Japanese officer, "will make you most
+handsome offer."
+
+"Do you remember the day when we were leaving Dunhaven, and you tried
+to overtake us in a gasoline launch?" asked Jack, with a smile.
+
+"Yes; very well," admitted Nakasura.
+
+"Do you remember that we hoisted the signal, N.D.?  That meant 'nothing
+doing,' Captain.  Our answer is the same, and will be, to-morrow and
+the next year."
+
+"Ah, here you are!" cried Lieutenant Abercrombie, as he hurried up and
+Captain Nakasura vanished beyond middle distance.  "Benson, dear old
+fellow, I want just a word with you before dinner is served," continued
+the Briton, thrusting his arm through Jack's and drawing him away after
+a nod of apology to Hal and Eph.  "Benson, I've had something on my mind
+all day; something I have had instructions to broach to you.  I have
+been waiting for the right moment.  Now, I must breathe just a word or
+two, and then let you think it over during dinner, don't you know?"
+
+"See here," smiled Jack, standing back, sudden suspicion in his eyes.
+"Don't tell me you've been instructed to see whether I'll enter the
+British submarine service."
+
+"Just that, dear old chap!" beamed Abercrombie, enthusiastically.  "But
+how could you guess?  Fact, though!  And not only you, but Hastings
+and Somers as well, don't you know!"
+
+"You're the fourth to spring this on us tonight," answered Jack Benson,
+soberly.  "And the answer will have to be the same for all of you."
+
+"The same for all of us, dear chap?" demanded Abercrombie.  "How can
+that be?"
+
+"The answer in every case is the same," retorted Jack.  "If our own
+government doesn't want us, no other government can have us.  We stand
+by our own Flag."
+
+"Eh?  What is this?" muttered Lieutenant Ulwin, coming unexpectedly upon
+the pair.  "Foreign government competing for you lads, Benson?  This
+won't do!"
+
+"Which is what I have just had the honor of telling Mr. Abercrombie,"
+smiled Jack, earnestly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THEIR LIVES DEEDED TO THE FLAG
+
+
+Secretary Sanders, Secretary of the Navy, looked up at the three young
+men who stood in line at the right-hand side of his desk.
+
+It was two days later; two days during which Jack, Hal and Eph had had
+little to do except roam about Washington and see all the sights of the
+National Capital.  This they had varied by dropping in at the United
+Service Club.
+
+"Gentlemen," remarked the Secretary of the Navy, "you have not yet been
+relieved of your detail to the gunboat 'Sudbury.'"
+
+"It's coming now," thought each of the three boys to himself, with a
+great wave of dismay.  "We are to be no longer of the Navy."
+
+"I will give instructions at once," continued Secretary Sanders, "to
+have orders issued relieving you from that duty."
+
+"Yes; it has come," muttered Jack, drearily, to himself.  "Our service
+with the Navy is over."
+
+"Gentlemen," and now, for a few seconds, the voice of the Secretary
+seemed far away indeed, "I am sensible of all you have done for your
+country, and above all, of the zeal you have shown.  Besides, I have in
+mind the fact that you have made yourselves among the most expert of all
+handlers of submarine torpedo boats.  If it can be arranged, I wish to
+keep all three of you actively in the United States Navy."
+
+Jack Benson looked up with a gasp.  His comrades were not less astounded.
+
+"I am aware," Mr. Sanders went on, "that we could not expect you to
+enlist as mere apprentices.  In your own particular field of submarine
+work you are amply fitted to hold officers' commissions.  Yet, under the
+law, you cannot be granted commissions until you are twenty-one years
+of age.  None of you are quite eighteen.
+
+"Therefore, it has occurred to me that you can be appointed, specially,
+with rank, command and pay, until you are twenty-one.  The President
+agrees with me in what I have to offer.  You, Mr. Benson, are offered
+a special appointment as lieutenant, junior grade, in the United States
+Navy.  You, Mr. Hastings, and you, Mr. Somers, are offered special
+appointments as ensigns.  You will all have the privileges of your
+ranks except the actual commissions.  Yet you will be actual officers,
+and entitled to full respect.  Moreover, the President promises that,
+when you are twenty-one years of age, you shall have regular commissions
+promptly.  In case the President is not re-elected to his office, he
+agrees to urge upon his successor in the White House the fulfilment
+of the promise.  So, if you accept the special appointments, now,
+you are absolutely certain of commissions as soon as you reach the
+age of twenty-one.  Perhaps it is only just to add that we are aware
+that all three of you have already been offered commissions in foreign
+navies, and that you have refused.  Both the President and myself
+appreciate your loyalty to your own Flag.  Now, what do you young
+gentlemen say to accepting special appointments to run until you are
+each twenty-one?"
+
+"Mr. Secretary, it's the brightest, the one great dream with us all,"
+Jack Benson replied, hoarsely.  "There is just one thing that could
+hold us back.  We really feel in honor bound to Mr. Farnum and Mr.
+Pollard to stand by their interests, for they have been our best
+friends."
+
+"What do you say to that, Mr. Farnum?" inquired the Secretary.
+
+From behind a screen stepped Jacob Farnum, the Dunhaven shipbuilder.
+
+"Why, see here, boys," began Farnum, a broad smile on his face, "I
+received a long wire from Mr. Sanders yesterday.  Dave Pollard and I
+talked this thing over, and we decided that the Pollard boat is now
+an assured success.  You have put the boats where we can now build
+and run them without you.  You are more needed in the Navy.  Now,
+Dave and I both urge you to go where we know your hearts are--into
+the Navy.  And you will go with all our best wishes.  The government
+needs you, now, to handle the boats that we build up at Dunhaven, and
+to train war-crews for those boats.  There is only one objection to
+your entering the Navy, boys.  You will have to pass upon our boats.
+We know you will do that honestly and fearlessly; yet there are many
+who would sneer at having boats passed on for the government by young
+officers who hold stock in our concern.  Now, the amount of stock
+that each of you holds has been growing steadily with each new success
+that you have won for us, which if you enter the Navy you should not
+own.  So Dave and I offer you ten thousand dollars each for the shares
+that you hold.  It is a fair valuation."
+
+"I know it is, if you offer it, Mr. Farnum," Jack Benson replied, with
+feeling.
+
+"Then you'll accept, and take your very heart's-wish--the Navy--all
+of you?" asked Mr. Farnum.
+
+"I accept both your offer, Mr. Farnum, and, the greater offer of the
+Secretary of the Navy," replied Jack, his eyes becoming misty.
+
+"I accept," murmured Hal.
+
+"So do I," from Eph.
+
+"Then, sir," declared Jacob Farnum, turning to the Secretary of the
+Navy, "the Flag is richer by three magnificent young followers!"
+
+*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
+
+Here we must leave the submarine boys for the present, for these events
+happened hardly later than yesterday, and there are no new adventures
+yet to chronicle.
+
+Donald Graves--Millard--received a severe sentence in the penitentiary.
+He is still serving the sentence, of course.  Gray, his accomplice, who
+attempted to spirit the drawings outside of the United States, is now
+likewise serving a term.
+
+The trial was a swift, nearly secret one.  Daisy Huston was not dragged
+into the case at all.  In one respect the trial failed.  Neither culprit
+could be forced to tell for which foreign government the dastardly work
+had been attempted.  The "Spitfire" returned to Dunhaven, and was later
+sold to the government, with several other boats.  Williamson became
+the new Pollard captain.
+
+Several foreign governments were deeply disappointed over not being able
+to secure the services of the submarine boys.
+
+But Jack, Hal and Eph could be happy nowhere except under their own Flag.
+
+They are now accepted most cordially by all their brother officers,
+young and old, in the United States Navy.
+
+For the most part, so far, the duties of our young officers have been
+aboard the different boats purchased from the Pollard Company.  Yet,
+for the sake of practice and change, they have been, at times, detailed
+aboard other classes of craft in the Navy.
+
+We shall now encounter our young acting naval officers in one of their
+new fields of special work, in the next volume of this series, which
+is published under the title: "_The Submarine Boys And the Smugglers;
+Or, Breaking Up the New Jersey Customs Frauds_."  Here we shall find our
+talented lads engaged in doing some of their finest work for Uncle Sam's
+Government, and under circumstances that will delight every reader.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG***
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