aptain Jack's arm.

Captain Jack took hold of that hand to disengage it. But Mlle. Nadiboff
merely held the tighter, while the boy was conscious that she was
gazing up at him appealingly.

"I don't wish to be rude, Mademoiselle; don't, force me to be," the
submarine boy urged. "Will you kindly release my arm?"

Then, with a subdued though angry exclamation, the girl obeyed.

"You will not even hear me?" she cried, stamping one foot lightly
against the veranda boards, while now her eyes brimmed with tears.

"By jove, but she's a bully actor," thought Benson, with a sort of
admiration.

"I am sorry, Mademoiselle," he replied, "But I am wanted now. I am
forced to say 'good evening.'"

With a bow he turned and left her, replacing his cap as he strode away.

"Oh, that fool, that unnatural young man!" she cried, angrily, to
herself. "He prefers what he calls 'duty' to the friendly glance of a
pretty eye. Bah! Perhaps he is laughing at me at this moment. If he
is, he is laughing much too soon, for I shall teach him a lesson or two.
You are not yet beyond my reach, my brave young Captain!"

The veil that Mlle. Nadiboff carefully wound so that two folds fell
across her face concealed a hard, sneering, almost barbaric look that
had crept quickly into that handsome young face.

But Jack joined his own party at once. Through the rest of the evening
he did not encounter either the young woman or M. Lemaire. The latter,
in fact, had made himself practically invisible of late.

The next afternoon, early, a launch from the gunboat brought off the
pleasure party that was to make the trip on the submarine boat.

Mr. Farnum and David Pollard were ashore at this time. Captain Jack and
Eph Somers stood on the platform deck to receive and welcome the party.

The first young woman to whom Benson extended his hand to help her
aboard held up a camera for him to take first of all.

"Thank you," responded the young skipper, gravely. "We will send this
camera to the engine room. It will be returned to you at the end of
the trip."

As he spoke, he slipped the camera box back to Eph, who started for
the conning tower with it.

"But I wish to take some photographs with it," cried the young woman,
indignantly. "Especially, a flashlight when we are below the surface
of the ocean."

"I am most sorry, madam," Captain Jack replied, politely, "but it is
wholly out of the question for any photographs to be made aboard the
b