the two Italians who had trapped him the night before. Though all the
workmen of the yard were rounded up, Jack could not find his recent
assailants among them.

"And now," cried Mr. Farnum, when Captain Jack returned to the Farnum
yard, "you will have to get busy with any preparation on board the boat
that has to be made."

"No preparation is necessary," replied Benson, "except to remove the
automatic closer from the after port of the torpedo tube, so the Navy
men won't see it. That can be done in ten minutes or less. The
'Pollard' is all ready for inspection or any kind of tests, sir."

So Jack spent his time at leisure aboard the submarine. Eph and Hal
listened enviously to the recital of his night's adventure.

"And all that time," grumbled Hal, "I was taking an extra nap in the
starboard stateroom."

"And I was reading a great story about the boy scouts of the War of
1812," sighed Eph, regretfully. "Doing that when something real was
happening within a long stone's throw of here. Oh, Jack, Jack! Why
didn't you tip us off?"

"If I had only suspected that something was up, I would have done it,"
Jack replied. "I tell you, fellows, there was a time, when those
Italians were marching me through the woods, that a little company of
my own sort would have been mighty pleasant. I couldn't be very sure,
at one time last night, of whether you'd ever see me again. But I had
the conviction that, if I tried to put up a useless fight against those
two powerful fellows, there'd be sure to be a new captain aboard the
'Pollard.'"

It was well along in the evening when Mr. Farnum received a telegram
from Washington, informing him that a board of three Naval officers,
provided with proper credentials, would arrive in Dunhaven on the next
morning but one.

The boatbuilder came promptly on board the submarine with the news,
adding, earnestly:

"Don't you boys leave this boat unguarded for an instant until after
the trial trip is over. Mr. Melville will very likely hear about this
and I'm not sure he'd hesitate to disable our boat if he could. At the
rate at which work is going on at his yard his boat may be finished
before our second submarine is ready for demonstration. It would be
greatly to his interest to have a boat to show the Government first,
especially if he now has the plans of our automatic closing device."

It turned out that the suspicion of Mr. Melville receiving the news of
the coming trial trip