ders. Your Mr. Farnum, I take it.
Go to him, won't you, and plead with him for me? Go!"

One of her little, gloved hands rested on his arm, pushing gently.

But Jack Benson, though she made him feel inwardly at odds with himself,
thought more of his duty than of anything else.

"I am very sorry--awfully sorry, Mlle. Nadiboff. But won't you
understand that what you ask is wholly impossible?"

"Good-bye, then!" she said, resentfully, though gently, half turning
from him.

"You'll shake hands, won't you?" asked Jack, holding out his own right
hand.

"Perhaps, after I have talked with you on shore--when we meet again,"
she replied, a bit distantly. Then she turned to Williamson as her boat
came in close alongside. "Your hand, please. I am afraid I may slip."

Williamson helped that most attractive young woman down over the side,
lifting his cap after he had seen her safe aboard the rowboat. As
the harbor craft veered off, Captain Jack Benson lifted his cap with
all courtesy. Mlle. Sara Nadiboff bowed to him rather coldly.

"I suppose," sighed Jack, to himself, as he turned away, "a woman can't
begin to understand why we must be so secret aboard a submarine craft
that all the naval men in the world would like to know about. If she
only could understand!"

Had Benson been able to guess just how well the handsome young spy did
understand, and how much she had hoped to learn through appealing to his
interest in her, he would have been furious at the thought of his own
great simplicity.

"Your charming partner of last night was rather disappointed," observed
Hal Hastings.

"Yes; she must feel that I have used her mighty shabbily," Jack
responded. "I am afraid she won't forgive me."

"Oh, well, after a few days you'll never see her again," murmured Hal.
"Just because a girl is pleasant--and pretty--one can't forget all the
orders that he's working under."

Captain Jack Benson talked to himself in about the same strain, yet he
couldn't wholly get over the notion that he had been--though
helplessly--rude to a woman.

"You won't need me on deck any more, will you, sir?" asked Williamson,
saluting.

"No; I shall be on deck," Jack replied, returning the salute. "Very
likely Mr. Hastings will be here with me, for that matter."

Soon after the machinist had gone below Eph Somers returned to the deck.

"I've been posting that Kimono," Eph explained.

"Kamanako," laughed Captain Jack.

"Oh, it's all the