g man, Captain," assented
M. Lemaire, rather admiringly.

"Brave?" echoed Benson. "There's nothing here that calls for bravery,
is there?"

"No-o-o," smiled the Frenchman slowly. "Nothing, Captain, but the
courage to do and dare--and prosper."

"You speak like the puzzle page in a mail order magazine," laughed Jack
Benson, more easily. "Now, Monsieur, won't you oblige me by becoming
more definite?"

"What can I say, then?"

"Why, M. Lemaire, I always like to deal with people who are direct and
right to the point. You plainly have some kind of a scheme that you
are trying to put through with me. Won't you oblige me by coming
straight to the very point?"

"I shall be as direct as you can wish, Captain Benson," replied the
Frenchman, regaining his smile. "Let us stroll. Walking often helps
the flow of language."

Out of the corner of his eye Jack noted that, though Mlle. Nadiboff
refrained from joining them, she none the less hovered at no great
distance from them.

"Now, my young friend," began the Frenchman, after a pause of a few
moments, "you command the submarine boat, and you know all her secrets.
You are a draughtsman, to, no doubt?"

"A fair draughtsman," nodded Jack.

"You could draw us a model of the boat you command. You could make
drawings of all the important parts. You could supply us with
explanations."

"Just what sort of explanations?" Jack asked, coolly.

M. Lemaire shot a swift, sidelong glance at the submarine boy.

"How?" demanded the Frenchman. "You do not understand yet?"

"You promised, Monsieur, to be very exact and explicit. What do you
want?"

"Why, then, such drawings and such explanations that any skilled
shipbuilder, from the plans you furnish us, could build another boat
just like, and just as effective, as the boat you now command?"

"What do you want to do with such plans?" asked Benson.

"Why, would you care about that, if I pay you well enough?"

"Perhaps not," muttered Jack Benson. "Still, when I go into anything,
I like to know all about it."

"Well, then," cried M. Lemaire, gayly, "first of all, we will come to
the question of a fee to be paid you for your trouble. Such drawings
and such papers you could prepare for us in two or three days, could
you not?"

"I think that very likely," Jack admitted. He had thrust his hands
deep down into his trousers pockets, in order to restrain his very
natural impulse to spring at the Frenchman and rain blow