ront.

Little time did the shipbuilder lose in getting under way. A rousing
cheer ascended when the grim little "Benson" slipped her moorings and
turned her nose out toward the sea.

"Your pipe-hungry machinist went on that craft, didn't he!" asked the
naval officer, as the crowd began to turn back from the beach.

"Yes," nodded Captain Jack. "So there's nothing at all to prevent our
getting the 'Hastings' out on the wave as soon as you like."

"I'm going to send my men up to the hotel, first, for a jolly big feed,"
proposed Lieutenant Danvers. "They've been on the rail, eating on the
jump, and now they'll appreciate a good square meal."

"Suppose we all go up to the hotel for luncheon!" proposed Captain Jack.

"Then how about having torpedoes aboard when we return?"

"How many real torpedoes will you want for to-day, Mr. Danvers?" Benson
inquired.

"Two, besides the dummies, will be plenty."

"Then I'll run over to Mr. Partridge, the superintendent of the yard,
and he'll have a foreman and a gang attend to it," suggested the young
submarine skipper.

Accordingly, this was done. Then the party slated for the afternoon
cruise went over to the hotel. By the time that they came back from
the midday meal the two service torpedoes were aboard the "Hastings"
and the target was in readiness to be towed out to sea.

This "target" was not a handsome-looking affair. It was an old scow,
some thirty feet long and broad of beam, that had once been used, up
the coast, in sea-wall construction work. Mr. Farnum had bought it a
short time before and it now lay at anchor, near the beach, ready to
be towed out to sea for its last service to mankind. The scow was
heavily laden with rock, this being intended to sink the craft's keel
as far as was advisable. The old scow had now something more than four
feet draught, with less than two feet of freeboard.

Two of the workmen, in an old whaleboat, waited to row the party out to
the "Hastings." Jack was soon able to welcome Lieutenant Danvers on
board the submarine.

"You can look around all you want, Ewald and Biffens," suggested Mr.
Danvers, "and see if you can find any great differences between this
craft and the 'Pollard' and the 'Farnum.'"

The two sailors, accordingly, made themselves wholly at home in the
interior of the submarine.

"Both men have put in tours of duty on the first two boats turned out
by your company," explained the officer. "They know all ab