ea through provided it makes the 'Pollard' a world-beater. Do you
care to take this in hand, Mr. Pollard, and try to perfect it? For
we'll admit we're stuck fast and can't get any further with it."

"Do I care to?" repeated the inventor. "Why, boys, I'll be delighted to
work over it. It'll be better than sleep to me for many a night to come.
But I hate to take it out of your hands, since you originated it."

"Take it and welcome," begged Hal Hastings. "The only thing we want is
to see it work."

"And the sooner the better," grunted Eph Somers.

"Then thank you, I will," cried the inventor, earnestly. "But you boys,
if the device can be made to work, shall have your full share of the
credit."

"Hullo, boys," greeted Jacob Farnum, coming out from the inner office,
a letter in his hands. "By the way, here's something that may interest
you. I've a letter from a man who writes about the new trick of leaving
a submerged boat. He refers to you boys as our young experts."

"He doesn't know, does he," chuckled Jack, "that we're only three
apprentices, and rather raw, at that?"

"No, you're not," retorted Mr. Farnum. "My correspondent is pretty near
right in referring to you as young experts."

"If we're going to get that reputation," muttered Benson, more than half
seriously, "we'll have a heap to do in 'making good.'"

"Just look here, Farnum, at what these boys have been at work on," begged
the inventor, calling attention to the partly-finished model.

In an instant the boatbuilder became absorbed in the idea as shown by
model and drawings.

"Can this be made perfect, Dave?" he asked, eagerly, turning to the
inventor.

"I think it can," answered Mr. Pollard. "The boys have been good enough
to ask me to try."

"Then I hope you'll start, this minute," exclaimed the yard's owner. "It
means more to us, Dave--more to us, boys--than any of you suppose at
this moment! Let me tell you something. This letter holds the key to
the secret. Trying to interest people in our work, I've been writing
right and left trying to raise more capital on terms that would be fair
to us. Now, here's a letter from Broughton Emerson, a man worth
millions. He admits that my letter has interested him. He'll come here,
soon, and he states that, if we can show him a good enough chance to
make money he will put in the needed capital, taking satisfactory
security, and yet leave the business under its present control. In
other