ry generation, wondered whether
boys were as serious and dependable, as staunch and loyal as the boys
of the day before yesterday. Look here, lad!"

Major Woodruff rose, stepping to the door aft and throwing it open. The
stern of the tug was visible. From the pole that slanted out over the
stern, hung the Stars and Stripes.

"You don't need to glance at that fine old bit of bunting more than a
second, lad," continued the major, "before you feel all that it can ever
make you feel. In your case, I believe the sight of the Flag is always
an inspiration to you. I pray it is so with every boy who grows up in
this country. But is it?"

Standing there before the Flag, Jack quietly doffed his cap.

"Thank you, Benson," acknowledged the major, also doffing his own cap.
Then, closing the door, Major Woodruff stepped back to the table on
which lay chart and book.

"This chart, Benson, shows what the rascal Millard, has been doing out
on the neck. This book proves that he has been at work at some other
points. The book doesn't tell much of the story, though. Of that I
am certain. Millard, if he has been at work long, has compiled other
notes in other written volumes. If so, then he has also made other
charts of our coast defenses. For what other government has he thus
marked a series of charts with our secrets? And has Millard succeeded
in getting other charts, and other books of notes, off to the foreign
government he is serving--or has he them hidden somewhere in this
country, awaiting his chance to take the results of his spying out of
the United States?"

"I wish I knew!" muttered Jack.

"I'm coming to the point," continued Major Woodruff, briskly. "Now, of
course, when we discover evidence that spies of other governments are at
work along our lines of national defenses, the first thing we try to do
is to catch these foreign agents and all the material they have
succeeded in getting together."

Major Woodruff, who was becoming considerably excited, paused to light
a cigar, ere he continued, more slowly:

"Now, you and your two friends, Benson, know this fellow Millard. You
will spot him instantly, wherever you go. I shall communicate with
Washington, at once, by means of a telegram in cipher. The War
Department will order me to use all speed in catching Millard, and in
finding out where he keeps his other stolen records. Men and money will
be used in running down this fellow. Yet you and your two c