nough behind to be
able to observe everything without interfering with either torpedo craft.

From looking at the "Pollard" Captain Jack glanced down at the water. His
own boat's bows seemed to be cutting the water at a fast gait. The young
skipper, knowing what he knew about both boats, could not understand this
losing to the other craft.

"The Navy men must know a few tricks with engines that we haven't
guessed," he observed, anxiously, to young Hastings.

"I don't know what it can be, then," murmured Hal, uneasily. "There aren't
so confusingly many parts to a six-cylinder gasoline motor. They aren't
hard engines to run. More depends on the engine itself than on the
engineer."

"But look over there," returned Captain Jack Benson. "You see the
'Pollard' taking the wind out of our teeth, don't you?"

"Yes," Hal admitted, looking more puzzled.

"Do you think our engines are doing the top-notch of their best?" asked
Benson.

"Yes; for Williamson is a crackerjack machinist. He knows our engines as
well as any man alive could do."

"Do you think it would do any good for you to go below, Hal?"

"I will, if you say so," offered Hastings. "Yet there's another side to
it."

"What?"

"Williamson might get it into his head that I went below because I thought
he was making a muddle of the speed. As a matter of fact, he knows every
blessed thing I do about our motors, and Williamson is loyal to the core."

"I know," nodded Captain Jack. "I'd hate to hurt a fine fellow's feelings.
Yet--confound it, I _do_ want to win this burst of speed. It means,
perhaps, the quick sale of this boat to the Navy. If we're beaten it
means, to the Secretary of the Navy, that he already has our best boat,
and he might not see the need of buying the 'Farnum' at all."

"Give Williamson two or three minutes more," begged Hal. "You might tell
Eph, though, to repeat, and repeat, the signal for top speed. That'll show
Williamson we're losing."

Jack Benson walked to the conning tower, instructing Eph Somers in a low
tone.

"I've signaled twice, since the first time," Eph replied. "But here goes
some more."

"I wonder what's going wrong with our engines, then," muttered Captain
Jack, uneasily.

"It ain't in careless steering, anyway," grumbled Eph. "I'm going as
straight as a chalk line."

"I noticed that," Captain Jack admitted.

He continued to look worried, for, by this time, the "Pollard" was at
least a good two hundred and fifty