enace to navigation, drifting about in the night in the path
of incoming vessels."

"Oh, I guess you'll get rid of her easily enough," spoke Jack,
confidently. "You're a professional at this business, sir."

"So are the two men with me," nodded the officer. "By the way, Ewald
can just as well come on deck and take the wheel, if you want him to do
so. Then you can go below and see all that we do with a torpedo."

"Now, that's what I call a great idea," cried Benson, enthusiastically.
"I want to know just how a torpedo is handled at the time of firing."

"It's the only thing you have left to learn about this business,"
smiled the naval officer. Then he passed the word for Ewald. When that
it sailor had taken the wheel, the naval officer and the young submarine
skipper went below.

"We'll swing in one of the dummy torpedoes, first, of course," announced
Mr. Danvers.

One of the dummies was, therefore, hauled forward on a truck, then
forced on into the torpedo tube. Jack watched, intently, this part of
the business.

The torpedo itself was a cigar-shaped affair, with a propeller at the
after end. This propeller was set in motion by means of an engine in
the after part of the torpedo, the engine being so constructed that it
was set in operation at the moment the torpedo left the tube and entered
the ocean outside. The propeller was fitted with apparatus that would
drive the torpedo in a straight line.

"The torpedo looks like a miniature submarine, doesn't it?" muttered
young Benson.

"It surely does," nodded the naval officer. "And, since the torpedo has
to travel under water, what better model could have been chosen? Now,
the engines in these dummy torpedoes can be set for two, four, six or
eight hundred yards, and the torpedo, once it enters the water, travels
forward, in a straight line until the engine gives out. That is, the
torpedo travels ahead if it doesn't hit something. So, in actual war
conditions, we would always get nearer to the object than the distance
for which the engine is set to run. The speed of a torpedo like this,
under water, is a good deal better than thirty miles an hour, but the
distance the torpedo can go is naturally short. That is a direct
consequence of its speed. Now, Mr. Benson, would you like to know how
to fire the torpedo, since it is already in the tube?"

"Certainly, sir," nodded Jack. And then he continued as if reciting a
lesson: "Just give that firing lever