Victor G. Durham

“ Captain Jack and Hal rubbed their eyes.
"The same thing would have happened to a battleship," smiled Lieutenant Danvers, who had come up behind them. "Now, you young men begin to have something like an idea of what an engine of war you are handling, because this craft would be much more deadly, and vastly more nerve-racking to an enemy, because she would approach under water, and those on the battleship would have little or no means of gauging their peril. Incidentally, Mr. Benson, I must congratulate you upon the neatness of the shot." ”

“ You're dreaming, Fred! The boys were too smart for you last time; Now that they're on their guard, don't you realize they'd be harder than ever to catch."
"Jack Benson and his friends don't know that I was behind what happened last night," retorted Radwin. "Besides, if they're on their guard, now, so am I. I know them to be smarter than I first thought, so I shall spread a deeper, tighter net for them. John Rhinds, you shall win the rest of the submarine tests. At least, the Pollard boats won't win!" ”

“ May the best craft win, no hard feelings! Fair sport all the way through, Farnum, old and to you, Benson—may you never be in fitter shape than to-day!"
"The old hypocrite!" gasped Jack, vengefully "I'm mighty sorry I can't head this boat around and run it straight down his lying throat!"
"Then he'd surely gobble you up!" laughed Lieutenant Danvers. "But be careful, lad! Don't let vengeful thoughts get into your head and stick to-day. You've got to keep yourself cool and your nerve steady. ”

“ John C. Rhinds stood by the starboard rail of his own craft, regarding the rival with anxious eyes. But Jack knew the rascal to be so wily that the look of anxiety might be feigned.
Up, nearer and nearer! Jack was moving to the starboard of the "Zelda," as the "Oakland" was on that same side of the course.
"The old wretch isn't shouting out anything about fair play and good luck to us, now," muttered Jack, vengefully, as, at half-past four, the two craft ran neck and neck, but little over a hundred yards apart.
Then the "Benson" began to forge ahead. ”

“ Fine business, that, when our first and only business is to make the Pollard boats the number-one winners in as many tests as possible!"
"Great Caesar!" exploded Jack, realizing, now, what a narrow escape he had had from another disaster to their common interests.
"So you be on your guard," Hal went on with his wise counsel. "No one—at least, no one in your own crowd—doubts your grit, or your willingness to clinch with Radwin and fight it out to a copper-riveted finish. I don't blame you for wanting to thrash Radwin every time you think of poor Dave Pollard up at the hospital. ”

“ A wizard, as we understand one nowadays, is a mere pretender, a sleight-of-hand man—a jack at cards. I would offer a more fitting title—and in all sincerity—when I allude to Jack Benson, Hal Hastings and Eph Somers as the Young Kings of the Deep! ”

“ For a number of months, now, Jack Benson and Hal Hastings had lived all but continually aboard submarine torpedo boats. They had operated such craft, when awake, and had dreamed of doing it when asleep. Being youths of intense natures, and unusually quick to learn, they had long before qualified as experts in handling submarine craft.
They had yet, however, one thing to learn practically. It needs the deadly torpedo, fired below the water, and traveling under the surface, to make the torpedo boat the greatest of all dangers that menace the haughty battleship of a modern navy. ”

“ But Jacob Farnum's next words all but lifted the submarine boys from their feet.
"Jack, my boy, and you, too, Hal, at Groton Bay you will have to make the very efforts of your lives. We're to go through an official test for the United States Government. We shall be in competition with five other types of submarine boats—the Rhinds, the Seawold, the Griffith, and the Blackson and Day. We shall have to meet—and I hope, vanquish—all the recognized types of submarine boats made in the United States."
"And we will beat them, too!" glowed Jack Benson, his eyes flashing and his fists clenching. ”

“ In another minute, despite her rather heavy tow, the "Hastings" was nosing briskly out of the harbor. The gasoline engines this little craft were of a "heavy service" pattern, which adapted the submarine to the work of towing at need.
"How far out do you want to go, sir!" asked Captain Jack, as the Navy lieutenant took a seat beside him in the tower, after Eph and the sailors had gone below.
"We want to be sure to be well out of the path of coastwise vessels," replied Danvers. "That's the main thing, you know. We can't take any risk of sinking a merchantman while we're having our fun." ”

“ But we can stand the present speed, with its gradual overheating, up to the finish time for the race. If both boats keep going at the speed they're using now, and neither has an accident, we stand to come in half a mile in the lead."
"Good strategy, that, Jack!" cried Jacob Farnum, his eyes gleaming. "To let the other fellow take the risk of overheating his machinery all day, while we do it only in the last part of the race. My boy, I'm hopeful we may win yet."
"So am I, sir," muttered Benson. "Still, there's the risk that John C. Rhinds may have something more up his sleeve. ”

“ As too many visitors would not be wise the shipbuilder represented, also, his young submarine officers. He left them in the lobby of the Somerset.
"Don't go away from here," smiled Mr. Farnum, wearily. "Don't let anybody coax you away from here. Just stay right here, and I won't have to worry about you while I'm away. We can't take any chances—can't lose any more of our crowd."
"Those are orders, sir," Jack Benson answered. "You'll be obeyed." ”

“ Shipbuilder and naval officer were lounging in easy chairs, smoking Havanas until the air was thick and white with the smoke.
"Sailing orders, Jack," announced Farnum.
"All right, sir," nodded the young skipper, looking at his watch. "I can pull out inside of twelve minutes."
"But you don't have to," laughed Farnum. "You have until morning.
Where do you suppose you're going?"
"I don't know, sir."
"Curious, Jack?"
"I don't care where we're going," Benson smiled back. "When it's a matter of business all parts of the earth look alike to me."
Lieutenant Danvers laughed heartily. ”

“ It was after one in the morning when the Seawold craft strayed into port. A little later came the "Chelsea" and the remaining submarine rivals, for the gunboat had stood by the slower ones in case aid of any sort was needed.
As the "Zelda" came to her moorings in the inky blackness John C. Rhinds stepped out upon her platform deck. Rhinds, after his disappointment, looked like a very old man. He paced back and forth, moodily, until his captain and crew had gone below. Then Rhinds turned, with a half snarl, when Fred Radwin, after lighting a cigar, stepped outside. ”

“ Not a bit," retorted Danvers. "Why, look over there!" as he swung the searchlight in a new direction. "There's that submerged mast-stump, free of the wreck and floating horizontally, now."
Nor was it long before it was clear to trained eyes that the sunken derelict had been efficiently blown up. That water-logged ghost of a ship would never again be a source of peril to navigators.
"Now, you can turn your nose for Dunhaven, and with a clear conscience," chuckled Lieutenant Danvers. "And, while you're doing that, I'm going below for another look at the little leak." ”

“ Farnum's own eyes as he snatched up a cap, bidding his own party a hasty good-bye ere he ran from the office.
"There goes a good-natured man," laughed Lieutenant Danvers.
"A big-hearted one, you mean, sir," corrected Captain Jack Benson. "He's a man with a heart bigger than any torpedo craft he could possibly build and launch."
"I wish him all luck," said the naval officer, heartily. "And that crowd, and also the poor seafaring men that put out in the like of the 'Mary Bond.'"
The crowd had gone from the office building, now, following Mr. Farnum and his volunteers down to the little harbor. ”

“ Captain Benson answered. "It isn't intended to keep that sort of stuff stored here all the time."
"Oh! Then I reckon I won't toss my job into the harbor," grinned the machinist. "How soon are you going to want me?"
"You can go aboard the 'Hastings' at once," replied Skipper Jack. "It won't do any harm to have the machinery of the new boat looked over with a most critical eye."
"Any gun-cotton, rack-a-rock wool or dynamite silk stored on board the new craft?" inquired Williamson, with a look of mock anxiety.
"Nothing more dangerous than gasoline," Captain Jack smiled. ”

“ In three quarters of an hour's time the ambulance had arrived, and also a car that Graves had sent to bring back Farnum and the three submarine boys.
"Don't run back at anything like speed, please," begged Mr. Farnum, with a wan smile. It had cut the shipbuilder to the marrow to find his friend, Pollard, so badly hurt.
"Nothing faster than ten miles an hour," promised the chauffeur.
Once in the city the auto followed the ambulance to the hospital, where
Farnum went to see that every possible attention was given his friend. ”

“ Not far from the city water front lay two United States gunboats, the "Chelsea" and the "Oakland." Near the gunboats a fleet of seven other submarine craft lay at moorings.
"We're not the only crowd, then," mused Jacob Farnum, "that has seen fit to enter more than one boat. I shall have to get busy in the hunt for information."
"I'm not much worried about the triumph of the Pollard boats over competitors," declared Danvers, generously. "And, if anything can win for you, Mr. Farnum, it's the having of such enthusiasts as your submarine boys to handle your boats in the official tests." ”

“ Rhinds and Radwin were on shore, at the hotel, but they had received word of the departure of four of the rival boats, and knew the reason for that departure.
"This," cried John Rhinds, getting up and pacing the room, while he smoked fast, "is the stage at which the game gets on my nerves!"
"Yes," agreed Radwin, though he spoke rather lazily. "It's fine to have only one rival left in the field, but it's discouraging to know that we're number two, and that the other fellow holds number one rank. Rhinds, I wonder if we can really get an order for any of our boats from the government. ”

“ Farnum. "Well, get aboard, boys. Lieutenant Danvers will be out by ten o'clock. Don't lie awake to-night, thinking too hard of what's before you."
"Don't you expect us to, sir," smiled Captain Jack. "We need our sleep to-night, if we've got such work ahead of us. It's big, work, sir."
"Big enough," nodded Jacob Farnum. "If we come out of this big official test with all the points of the game, then Uncle Sam is likely to buy all the submarine boats we can make for a couple of years to come—and our fortunes will be made—yours, too, boys!" ”

“ Jack admitted, bluntly.
"Well, I suppose it isn't human nature to be fond of our rivals," assented the naval officer, slowly.
"I've other reasons, of my own, for disliking Rhinds," muttered the submarine boy.
"He hasn't what you could call a wholesome face," smiled Danvers. "In fact, I think Mr. Rhinds must be a self-made man, made very badly. I can't quite think that he has anything of the human face divine."
Jack laughed, but bitterly.
"The 'Zelda' is the boat we have to beat today," he added. ”

“ Rhinds introduced himself to Farnum, then presented Radwin as secretary to the Rhinds Company.
"We're rivals in a way, of course," declared Mr. Rhinds. "But we want to be good-natured, friendly rivals, my dear Farnum. We hope to see a good deal of you all while here."
Jacob Farnum replied with equal cordiality. When it came Jack Benson's turn to be introduced, Rhinds seized him by the hand, patting his shoulder.
"Captain Benson?" he repeated. "The brainiest young man in America—with two chums who run him a close race. ”

“ None of the Farnum party, however, noted it.
"Well, what shall we do, boys?" inquired Radwin, genially, as, the four sauntered down the lobby toward the hotel entrance.
"I reckon taking things easily and restfully will suit us as well as anything," smiled Jack. "That is, unless you have some plan you particularly wish to suggest."
"Well," continued Radwin, thoughtfully, "the town is rather full of sailors, just at present, and they're making the nights lively in some sections. Do you care to go around with me, and see what the sailors are doing to drive dull care away?" ”

“ I'll hope to be able to go with you to-morrow, anyway."
"Isn't there a tug hereabouts that those people could hire?" questioned the naval officer.
"Oh, yes; there's a small one to the south of here, but her captain would charge at least fifty dollars a day," replied the shipbuilder, as he drew on a heavy deck ulster.
"I suppose these people expect you to go out for nothing," hinted
Lieutenant Danvers.
"Oh, yes, of course," nodded the shipbuilder. "But one can't be a crank, or a miser, when women are red-eyed and weeping from worry over their missing husbands and sons." ”