Jove, I know what she's doing, now," muttered the young skipper.
"That movement of her elbow betrays her, and her eyes are fixed, much of
the time on her lap. If she isn't sketching something, on the sly, then
my eyesight isn't as good as it used to be!"

Captain Jack Benson found himself quickly aquiver with suspicion and
indignation.

"Yet I can't afford to make any mistakes," he told himself, uneasily.
"I've got to be absolutely sure before I can take the risk of starting
a human cyclone about my ears!"

CHAPTER XVI

THE GOVERNMENT TAKES A HAND

Yet, for a brief interval more, Jack Benson hesitated.

"Is the young woman sketching, or is she merely writing?" he wondered,
anxiously. He watched her a little while longer.

"No; she's sketching. Those are drawing strokes she's making."

Then, looking wholly blank, Jack Benson turned on his heel. He looked
first at one mechanism, then at another. Yet, presently, stood close
to Lieutenant Commander Kimball's ear.

Only a few words were said, but the naval officer understood instantly.

As Captain Jack turned and went back, Kimball also sauntered along,
although he did not appear interested in the submarine boy's movements.
Yet it was not long when both appeared before the young Swedish woman.

"Miss Peddensen," murmured the lieutenant commander, "may I see what
you are writing?"

The woman looked up, her face composed, her eyes dancing with mirth.

"Why, surely, Mr. Kimball," she replied, laughing. "And very silly stuff
you'll find it, too. I have been jotting down my impressions upon
finding myself riding under the surface of the sea. I do not handle
your English language very well, as you will see."

Mr. Kimball glanced hastily through the three or four pages of rather
closely written note paper. It was, as the young woman had stated,
a very amateurish composition, in very stilted English.

The naval officer felt a sense of mortification and his face reddened
slightly. He had been led to expect that he would find something crime
on these sheets of paper. Instead, he scanned a stupid piece of
composition.

"I would die of humiliation, to have that read before all these people,"
murmured the young woman.

Lieutenant Commander Kimball gave Jack Benson a covert elbow-dig in the
ribs, a move said, as plainly as words:

"The joke is on you."

Jack, however, through half open eyes, had been watching on his own
account. Suddenly he made