t us treat him as
a man. I've always found him one, in judgment, knowledge and loyalty.
Do you mind telling me, sir, in what way he erred in bringing you in
here?"

"An error in giving his advice," replied Mr. Mayhew. "Or else it was
ignorance of how to handle a craft as large as this gunboat. For my
anchorage he told me--"

Here the lieutenant commander repeated the first part of Jack's directions
correctly, but wound up with:

"He advised me to throw my wheel over four points to port."

"Pardon me, sir," Jack broke in, unable to keep still longer. "What I
said, or intended to say, was to bring your vessel so that the forward
end of the submarine shed over there would be four points off the port
bow."

"What did you hear Mr. Benson say, Mr. Trahern?" demanded the gunboat's
commander, turning to the ensign who had stood with him on the bridge.

"Why, sir, I understood the lad to say what he states that he said."

"You are sure of that, Mr. Trahern?"

"Unless my ears tricked me badly," replied the ensign, "Mr. Benson said
just what he now states. I wondered, sir, at your calling for slow
speed astern."

Lieutenant Commander Mayhew gazed for some moments fixedly at the face
of Ensign Trahern. Then, of a sudden, the gunboat's commander, who was
both an officer and a gentleman, broke forth, contritely:

"As I think it over, I believe, myself, that Benson advised as he now
states he did. It was my own error--I am sure of it now."

Wheeling about, Mayhew held out his right hand.

"Mr. Benson," he said, in a deep voice full of regret, "I was the one
in error. I am glad to admit it, even if tardily. Will you pardon my
too hasty censure?"

"Gladly, sir," Benson replied, gripping the proffered hand. Jacob
Farnum stood back, wagging his head in a satisfied way. It had been
difficult for him to believe that his young captain had been at fault
in so simple a matter, or in a harbor with which he was so intimately
acquainted.

As for the young man himself, the thing that touched him most deeply was
the quick, complete and manly acknowledgment of this lieutenant
commander.

"Mr. Farnum," inquired the gunboat's commander, "have you any tow boats
about here that can be used in helping me to get the 'Hudson' off this
sand ledge?"

"The only one in near waters, sir," replied the yard's owner, "is a
craft, not so very much larger than a launch, that ties up some three
miles down the coast. She's the boat I