READY FOR THE SEA CRUISE
For the next ten days things moved along without much excitement for the
submarine boys.
During that time they had an average of four sections a day of cadet
midshipmen to instruct in the workings of the Pollard type of submarine
torpedo boat.
During the last few days short cruises were taken on the Severn River,
in order that the middies might practise at running the motors and
handling the craft. At such times one squad of midshipmen would be on
duty in the engine room, another in the conning tower and on the
platform deck.
Of course, when the midshipmen handled the "Farnum," under command of a
Navy officer, the submarine boys had but little more to do than to be
on board. Certainly they were not overworked. Yet all three were
doing fine work for their employers in making the Navy officers of the
future like the Pollard type of craft.
After waiting a few days Jack Benson reported to the Annapolis police
his experience with the mulatto "guide." The police thought they
recognized the fellow, from the description, and did their best to
find him. The mulatto, however, seemed to have disappeared from that
part of the country.
There came a Friday afternoon when, as the last detachment of middies
filed over the side into the waiting cutter, Lieutenant Commander
Mayhew announced:
"This, Mr. Benson, completes the instruction desired in the Basin and
in the river. To-morrow and Sunday you will have for rest. On Monday,
at 10 A.M., a section will report aboard for the first trip out to sea.
Then you will show our young men how the boat dives, and how she is
run under water. As none of our cadet midshipmen have ever been below
in a submarine before, you will be sure of having eager students."
"And perhaps some nervous ones," smiled Skipper Jack.
"Possibly," assented Mr. Mayhew. "I doubt it, though. Nervousness is
not a marked trait of any young man who has been long enrolled at the
Naval Academy."
"Can we have a slight favor done us, Mr. Mayhew?" Jack asked.
"Any reasonable favor, of course."
"Then, sir, we'd like to spend a little time ashore, as we've been
confined so long aboard. If I lock up everything tight on the boat
until Sunday night, may we know that the 'Farnum' will be under the
protection of the marine guard?"
"I feel that there will not be the slightest difficulty in promising
you that," replied Mr. Mayhew. "I will telephone the proper authorities
about it as soon as I go on shore."
All hands on board were pleased over the prospect of going ashore, with
the exception of Sam Truax.
"You don't need any guard on the boat," he protested. "I don't want to
go ashore. Leave me here and I'll be all the guard necessary."
"We're all going ashore," Jack replied.
"But I haven't any money to spend ashore," objected Truax.
"I'll let you have ten dollars on account, then," replied Jack, who was
well supplied with money, thanks to a draft received from Jacob Farnum.
"I don't want to go ashore, anyway."
"I'm sorry, Truax, but it doesn't really make any difference. The boat
will be closed up tight, and there wouldn't be any place for you to
stay, except on the platform deck."
"You're not treating me fairly," protested Sam Truax, indignantly.
"I'm sorry you think so. Still, if you're not satisfied, all I can do
is to pay you off to date. Then you can go where you please."
"I'm here by David Pollard's order. Do you forget that?"
"He sent you along to us, true," admitted Jack, "but I have instructions
from Mr. Farnum to dismiss anyone whose work on board I don't like. Now,
Truax, you're a competent enough man in the engine room, and there's no
sense in having to let you go. You're well paid, and can afford the
time on shore. I wouldn't make any more fuss about this, but do as the
rest of us are going to do."
"Oh, I'll have to, then, since you're boss here," grumbled Truax,
sulkily.
"I don't want to make it felt too much that I am boss here," Jack
retorted, mildly. "At the same time, though, I'm held responsible,
and so I suppose I'll have to have things done the way that seems
best to me."
Sam Truax turned to get his satchel. The instant his back was turned
on the young commander Sam's face was a study in ugliness.
"Oh, I'll take this all out of you," muttered the fellow to himself.
"I don't believe, Jack Benson, you'll go on the cruising next week. If
you do, you won't be much good, anyway!"
Ten minutes later a shore boat landed the entire party from the submarine
craft.
"Going with the rest of us, Truax?" inquired Jack, pleasantly.
"No; I'm going to find a boarding-house. That will be cheaper than
the hotel."
So the other four kept straight on to the Maryland House, giving very
little more thought to the sulky one.
It was not until after supper that Eph turned the talk back to Sam
Truax.
"I don't like the fellow, at all," declared young Somers. "He always
wants to be left alone in the engine room, for one thing."
"And I've made it my business, regular," added Williamson; the machinist,
"to see that he doesn't have his wish."
"He's always sulky, and kicking about everything," added Eph. "I may
be wrong, but can't get it out of my head that the fellow came aboard
on purpose to be a trouble-maker."
"Why, what object could he have in that?" asked Captain Jack.
"Blessed if I know," replied Eph. "But that's the way I size the
fellow up. Now, take that time you were knocked senseless, back in
Dunhaven. Who could have done that? The more I think about Sam Truax,
the more I suspect him as the fellow who stretched you out."
"Again, what object could he have?" inquired Benson.
"Blessed if I know. What object could anyone have in such a trick
against you? It was a state prison job, if the fellow had been caught
at the time."
"Well, there's one thing Truax was innocent of, anyway," laughed Captain
Jack. "He didn't have any hand in the way I was tricked and robbed by
the mulatto."
"Blamed if I'm so sure he didn't have a hand in that, too," contended
Eph Somers, stubbornly.
"Yet Mr. Pollard recommended him," urged Jack.
"Yes, and a fine fellow Dave Pollard is--true as steel," put in Hal
Hastings, quietly. "Yet you know what a dreamer he is. Always has
his head in the air and his thoughts among the stars. He'd as like
as not take a fellow like Truax on the fellow's own say-so, and never
think of looking him up."
"Oh, we've no reason to think Truax isn't honest enough," contended
Jack Benson. "He's certainly a fine workman. As to his being sulky,
you know well enough that's a common fault among men who spend their
lives listening to the noise of great engines. A man who can't make
himself heard over the noise of a big engine hasn't much encouragement
to talk. Now, a man who can't find much chance to talk becomes sulky
a good many times out of ten."
"We'll have trouble with that fellow, Truax, yet," muttered Eph.
"Oh, I hope not," Jack answered, then added, significantly:
"If he _does_ start any trouble he may find that he has been trifling
with the wrong crowd!"
Very little more thought was given to the sulky one. The submarine
boys and their companion, Williamson, enjoyed Saturday and Sunday
ashore.
All of them might have felt disturbed, however, had they known of one
thing that happened.
The naval machinists aboard the first submarine boat, the "Pollard,"
now owned by the United States Government, found something slightly
out of order with the "Pollard's" engine that they did not know exactly
how to remedy.
Sam Truax, hanging around the Basin that Sunday forenoon, was called
upon. He gladly responded to the call for help. For four hours he
toiled along in the "Pollard's" engine room. Much of that time he
spent there alone.
The job done, at last, Truax quietly received the thanks of the naval
machinists and went ashore again.
Yet, as he turned and walked toward the main gate of the grounds, there
was a smile on Sam Truax's face that was little short of diabolical.
"Now, if I can only get the same chance at the 'Farnum's' engines!" he
muttered, to himself. "If I can, I think Mr. Jack Benson will find
himself out of favor with his company, for his company will be out of
favor with the Navy Department at Washington!"