upon him, bearing the boy to the
floor and holding him there helpless.

"You little sneak, I've waited for this time!" snarled Owen, hoarsely.
"But now--"

Josh rolled the boy over, yanked a pair of steel handcuffs from a rear
pocket, and quickly, despite Benson's struggles snapped them onto the
Submarine boy's wrists.

"Now, I've got ye!" he finished, his flaming eyes close to Jack's.

"For a little while," jeered Benson, as calmly as he could force himself
to speak.

It was an unfortunate speech.

"Thank ye for warnin' me that the time's short," chuckled the brute.
With that he lifted the boy, bore him back to a stanchion, and swiftly
tied him to it in a standing position.

"That's all but the last thing I've got to do," pursued Josh Owen,
drawing back. "Boy, ye did yer worst for me, when ye had the chance.
And ye was the means of havin' Danny locked up. Mebbe Dan Jaggers did
give me some sleepin' stuff, an' maybe he did worry my own share of the
money from me; but, boy, ye never knew how much store I set by Danny
in spite o' some things. And now, he's locked up tight, thanks to you,
an' the constables are chasin' me from cover to cover, lookin' for me
everywhere. Howsomever, this settles the account!"

Jack Benson's heart seemed to stop beating as he realized what the
rage-crazed fellow was up to.

Josh Owen deftly handled the mechanism that opened the sea-valves to
let water into the diving tanks.

"I'm turnin' the water in slow," he announced. "That'll give me time
to git away. This is a divin' boat. _Well, Dive in her!_"

CHAPTER XV

THE COURAGE THAT RANG TRUE

In that first awful moment after he was left alone, Jack Benson's first
feeling was that it must all be an unbelievable dream.

Yet he knew that it was not. In his frenzy he tugged at the handcuffs,
fought with the cords that bound him to the stanchion, but all in vain.

The sea-valves had been opened only enough to let the water in slowly.
Almost at the outset, however, the keel slanted downward, for most of
the water was coming into the tanks the bow of the boat.

"Help! Help, quick!" roared Benson at the top of his voice. The side
ports were not open, but the manhole was, and the ventilators were
in place. The submarine boy shouted in the hope that the night
watchman might hear and reach the scene in time to effect a rescue.

The keel was still more slanting. At the instant when the diving
tanks held water enoug