d, Captain Benson called down for the best speed.

Commander Ennerling watched the boat's performance, and the work of the
young captain for some minutes before he said:

"Benson, I'll admit that the more I see of this craft the more anxious
I am to see her under our Navy flag."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, sir," cried Jack, his face glowing.

"Yet I'm a bit puzzled, after all."

"How so, sir?"

"Why, the more I think about it, the more I wonder just how much of my
delight and interest are due to the boat itself, and how much to the
splendidly expert way in which you young men handle her."

"You call us experts, sir?"

"Don't you believe, yourselves, that you are?"

"We hope that some day we shall be," was Jack's slow response.

"Benson," went on the Navy officer, earnestly, "if you're not now
experts, you never will be."

"Does that mean, sir, that we shall never know much more about such craft
than we do now?"

"By no means. You'll know more every year that you stick to the work.
What I intended to convey is that you three are the best experts in this
line I have ever seen, considering, of course, the amount of time you
have already given to this work. Give you three lads time enough, and
the United States appears destined to possess the three greatest
submarine experts in the world."

"That's great praise, sir," said Jack, quietly, his cheeks tingling.

"I mean all I've said," rejoined Commander Ennerling, gravely.

They had run some miles by this time. Captain Jack, reaching up to swing
the searchlight about over the course ahead, suddenly uttered:

"Look over there, sir--two points off starboard. What do you make out?"

Commander Ennerling instantly became absorbed as he caught sight of a
steam yacht something more than a mile away.

"Going under full power, but shooting rockets," added Jack. "They've
just sent up two from aft."

"Distress sign, without a doubt," mused the Naval officer. "Wonder what
it means?"

Jack had reached for a pair of night glasses, which he now handed
Commander Ennerling.

Already the "Pollard" had swung to a bow-on course and was making
straight for the steam yacht.

"Mutiny, by Jove!" murmured the Naval officer. He did not speak
excitedly, but with a certain grim dryness. "Catch up with them as soon
as you can, Captain Benson."

"There they go, heading away from us," muttered Captain Jack.

"From her present performance she doesn't look to be ove