s face was a study in ugliness.

"Oh, I'll take this all out of you," muttered the fellow to himself. "I
don't believe, Jack Benson, you'll go on the cruising next week. If you
do, you won't be much good, anyway!"

Ten minutes later a shore boat landed the entire party from the submarine
craft.

"Going with the rest of us, Truax?" inquired Jack, pleasantly.

"No; I'm going to find a boarding-house. That will be cheaper than the
hotel."

So the other four kept straight on to the Maryland House, giving very
little more thought to the sulky one.

It was not until after supper that Eph turned the talk back to Sam Truax.

"I don't like the fellow, at all," declared young Somers. "He always wants
to be left alone in the engine room, for one thing."

"And I've made it my business, regular," added Williamson, the machinist,
"to see that he doesn't have his wish."

"He's always sulky, and kicking about everything," added Eph. "I may be
wrong, but I can't get it out of my head that the fellow came aboard on
purpose to be a trouble-maker."

"Why, what object could he have in that?" asked Captain Jack.

"Blessed if I know," replied Eph. "But that's the way I size the fellow
up. Now, take that time you were knocked senseless, back in Dunhaven. Who
could have done that? The more I think about Sam Truax, the more I suspect
him as the fellow who stretched you out."

"Again, what object could he have?" inquired Benson.

"Blessed if I know. What object could anyone have in such a trick against
you? It was a state prison job, if the fellow had been caught at the
time."

"Well, there's one thing Truax was innocent of, anyway," laughed Captain
Jack. "He didn't have any hand in the way I was tricked and robbed by the
mulatto."

"Blamed if I'm so sure he didn't have a hand in that, too," contended Eph
Somers, stubbornly.

"Yet Mr. Pollard recommended him," urged Jack.

"Yes, and a fine fellow Dave Pollard is--true as steel," put in Hal
Hastings, quietly. "Yet you know what a dreamer he is. Always has his head
in the air and his thoughts among the stars. He'd as like as not take a
fellow like Truax on the fellow's own say-so, and never think of looking
him up."

"Oh, we've no reason to think Truax isn't honest enough," contended Jack
Benson. "He's certainly a fine workman. As to his being sulky, you know
well enough that's a common fault among men who spend their lives
listening to the noise of great engines. A man who c