irst day's work at boat building.

The gate was open, though the yard, as they stepped inside, had a
deserted look. The partly finished hulls of two schooners lay on the
ways down by the water front. There were half a dozen sloops in
various stages of completion. There were two houses, close to the
water's edge in which, as the boys afterwards learned, motor boats
were built. But it was a rough shed, more than twenty feet high, and
at least one hundred and twenty feet long, running down to the shore,
that instantly caught Jack Benson's glance.

"There's where they must be putting the 'Pollard' in shape," he cried,
eagerly, as he pointed. Both youngsters hurried toward that shed. As
they reached it the inventor came into sight around the end. He was
hollow-eyed, though alert; he looked even more worried than he had looked
the night before.

"Ah, good morning, boys," was his greeting. "Early on hand, I see."

"When a fellow's whole heart is set on a thing, he isn't likely to lie
abed until the last moment, is he, Mr. Pollard?" inquired Benson.

That speech impressed the inventor most favorably. _He_ could appreciate
enthusiasm.

"Come inside, and I'll show you something," he said, producing a key and
leading the way to a door in the side of the shed.

Through the long, high windows of the shed an abundance of light fell.
But Jack, once inside the door, halted, looking with lips parted and
eyes wide open.

"O-o-o-oh!" he murmured.

"What is it?" inquired the inventor, curiously.

"The very, wonder of the thing," replied Benson, frankly, looking over
the whole length of the "Pollard" as she lay propped up on the sturdy
ways.

Nor did that simple speech make the inventor think any less of the
boy. Though Hal Hastings remained silent for some time, his fascinated
gaze rested steadily on the strange-looking outlines of the cigar-shaped
bull of the boat.

The outer hull was of steel plates, carefully riveted into place.
The entire length of the boat was about one hundred and ten feet,
which in point of size placed her just about in the class of boats
of this type which are being constructed to-day.

Near the center of the boat, on the upper side, was the conning tower,
about nine feet in outside diameter, and extending some four feet
above the sloping deck of the craft. Around the conning tower extended
a flat, circular "platform" deck.

At the bow of the boat the torpedo tube projected a short dist