read with feverish interest
showing in his eyes.

"Oh, but this is great news!" he gasped. "We've finally got the Navy
Department awake. This dispatch inquires how soon we can be ready to
run the 'Pollard' through an exhaustive trial trip with a board of
Naval officers aboard. Do you grasp it, Jack? If the trial succeeds
we'll sell our first boat to the Government and be on the high road to
success and fortune! Oh, this is the grandest news! It overshadows
everything else!"

It truly did.

CHAPTER XIII

ON TRAIL AS YOUNG EXPERTS

Very early the next morning Jacob Farnum sent the following telegram to
the Navy Department at Washington:

_"Send board of officers as soon as you desire. Everything in readiness.
Advise me promptly, and how many will be in party."_

Then, knowing that he could not expect to hear from the national capital
for at least several hours, and feeling that he simply must have
something absorbing on his, hands, the boatbuilder turned his attention
to following up the business of the night before.

He soon learned, through means of his own, that Don Melville had engaged
a driver and had left Dunhaven during the night.

"Pooh!" snapped the boatbuilder. "If we want that young man, detectives
will find him sooner or later. Or else, he'll be compelled to hide at
the ends of the earth, so that he'll give us no further trouble."

The young stranger at the lock-up steadfastly refused to admit that he
was David Pollard's burglar of the night before. Naturally, therefore,
he failed to disclose what had become of the envelope of drawings stolen
from the inventor's room.

Yet the lawyer engaged by Mr. Farnum had strong hopes that, eventually,
the prisoner would be forced to reveal all that he knew. Another
attorney, engaged, presumably, by Mr. Melville, had also seen the
prisoner, and probably had succeeded in making the young man feel that
he would be well paid for silence.

During the forenoon the prisoner's case was called in the local justice's
court, but Farnum's lawyer had no difficulty in having the hearing
postponed. The prisoner gave the name of James Potter, which undoubtedly
was fictitious. No bail was offered for "Potter." If Mr. Melville
felt inclined to do that, he undoubtedly dreaded that such an act would
be construed as a tacit admission of Don's connection with the strange
business.

Captain Jack was sent, with an officer, to see whether he could identify