"Hullo!" muttered the young submarine skipper, staring curiously about the
little stateroom aft. He had it to himself, the nurse having been put on
shore. "Under way, eh? This is the queerest start I ever made on a
voyage."
Nor was it many moments later when Jack Benson stood on his feet. His
clothes were hung neatly on nails against the wall. One after another Jack
secured the garments, slowly donning them.
"How my head throbs and buzzes!" he muttered, his voice sounding unsteady.
"Gracious! What could have happened? Let me see. The last I
remember--passing that high fence--"
But it was all too great a puzzle. Benson finally decided to stop guessing
until some future time. He went on with his dressing. Finally, with his
blouse buttoned as exactly as ever, and his cap placed gingerly on his
aching head, he opened the stateroom door, stepping out into the cabin.
Accustomed as he was to sea motion, the slight roll of the "Farnum" did
not bother the young skipper much. He soon reached the bottom of the short
spiral stairway leading up into the conning tower. Up there, in the
helmsman's seat, he espied Hal Hastings with his hands employed at the
steering apparatus. Hal was looking out over the water, straight ahead.
"Sailing these days without word from your captain, eh?" Jack called, in a
voice that carried, though it shook.
"Gracious--you?" ejaculated Hal, looking down for an instant. Then Hastings
pressed a button connecting with a bell in the engine room.
"I'm going up there with you," Jack volunteered.
"Right-o, if you insist," clicked Eph Somers, appearing from the engine
room and darting to the young skipper's side. True, Jack's head swam a bit
dizzily as he climbed the stairs, but Eph's strong support made the task
much easier. There was space to spare on the seat beside Hal, and into
this Jack Benson sank.
"Say, you ought to sleep until afternoon," was Hastings's next greeting,
but Jack was looking out of the conning tower at the scene around him.
The three craft were leaving the coast directly behind. About three
hundred yards away, abeam, steamed the "Hudson" at a nine-knot gait.
"The 'Pollard' is on the other side of the gunboat, isn't she?" asked
Jack.
"Yes," Hal nodded.
"Naval crew aboard her?"
"Yes; Government has taken full possession of the 'Pollard.'"
"Who's running this boat? Just you and Eph?"
"No; that new man, Truax, is on board, and at the last moment Mr. Farnum
put Williamson, one of the machinists, aboard, also. You can send
Williamson back from Annapolis whenever you're through with him."
"Williamson is all right," nodded Jack, slowly. "But how about Truax?"
"I think he's going to be a useful man," Hal responded. "He seems familiar
with our type of engines. Of course, he knows nothing about the apparatus
for submerging the boat or making it dive. But he doesn't need to. Now,
Jack, old fellow, we're going along all right. Why not let Eph help you
back to your bunk, or one of the seats in the cabin, and have your sleep
out?"
"I've had it out," Benson declared, with a laugh. "I'm ready, now, to take
my trick at the wheel."
"Nonsense," retorted Hal Hastings. "I've been here a bare quarter of an
hour, and I'm good for more work than that. Jack, you're nothing but a
fifth wheel. You're not needed; won't be all day, and at night we anchor
in some harbor down the coast. Go and rest, like a good fellow."
"Can't rest, when I know I'm doing nothing," Benson retorted, stubbornly.
"Besides, this is the first time I've ever found myself moving along in
regular formation with the United States Navy. I feel almost as if I were
a Navy officer myself, and I mean to make the most of the sensation. Say,
Hal, wouldn't it be fine if we really _did_ belong to the Navy?"
"Gee-whiz!" murmured young Hastings, his cheeks glowing and his eyes
snapping.
"If we only belonged to the old Flag for life, and knew that we were
practising on a boat like this as a part of the preparation for real war
when it came?"
"_Don't!_" begged Hal, tensely. "For you know, old fellow, it can't come
true. Why, we haven't even a residence anywhere, from which a Congressman
could appoint one of us to Annapolis!"
"_One_ of us?" muttered Jack, scornfully. "Then it would have to be you.
_I_ wouldn't go, even as a cadet at Annapolis, and leave you behind in
just plain, ordinary life, Hal Hastings!"
"Well, it's no use thinking about it," sighed Hal, practically. "Neither
one of us is in any danger of getting appointed to Annapolis, so there's
no chance that either one of us ever will become an officer in the Navy.
Let's not talk about it, Jack. I've been contented enough, so far, but now
it makes me almost blue, to think that we can only go on testing and
handling submarine craft like these, while others will be their real
officers in the Navy, and command them in any war that may come."
Though his head throbbed, and though a dizzy spell came over him every few
minutes, Jack Benson stuck it out, up there beside his chum, for an hour.
Then, disdaining aid, he crept down the stairs, stretching himself out on
one of the cabin seats. Eph brought him a pillow and a blanket. Jack soon
slept, tossing uneasily whenever pain throbbed dully in his head.
"Guess I'll go out and have a little look at the young captain," proposed
Sam Truax, an hour later.
"Try another guess," retorted Eph, curtly. "You'll stay here in the engine
room. Jack Benson isn't going to be bothered in any way."
"I'm not going to bother him; just going to take a look at him," protested
Truax, moving toward the door that separated the engine room from the
cabin.
But young Somers caught the stranger by the sleeve of the oily jumper that
Sam had donned on beginning his work.
"Do you know what folks say about me?" demanded Eph, with a significant
glare.
"What do they say?"
"Folks have an idea that, at most times, I'm one of the best-natured
fellows on earth," declared Eph, solemnly. "Yet they _do_ say that, when
I'm crossed in anything my mind's made up to, I can be tarnation ugly. I
just told you I don't want the captain disturbed. Do you know, Sam Truax,
I feel a queer notion coming over me? I've an idea that that feeling is
just plain ugliness coming to life!"
Truax came back from the door, a grin on his face. Yet, when he turned his
head away, there was a queer, almost deadly flash in the fellow's eyes.
Jack slept, uneasily, until towards the middle of the afternoon. As soon
as Eph found him awake, that young man brought the captain a plate of
toast and a bowl of broth, both prepared at the little galley stove.
"Sit up and get away with these," urged Eph, placing the tray on the cabin
table. "Wait a minute. I'll prop you up and put a pillow at your back."
"This boat isn't a bad place for a fellow when he's knocked out," smiled
Jack.
"Any place ought to be good, where your friends are," came, curtly, from
young Somers.
As Captain Jack ate the warm food he felt his strength coming back to him.
"Poor old Hal has been up there in the conning tower all these hours,"
muttered Captain Jack, uneasily. "He must have that cramped feeling in his
hands."
"Humph!" retorted Eph. "Not so you could notice it much, I guess. It's a
simpleton's job up in the conning tower to-day. All he has to do is to
shift the wheel a little to port, or to starboard, just so as to keep the
proper interval from the 'Dad' boat. Besides, I've been up there on
relief, for an hour while you slept, and Hal came down and sat with the
engines. Cheer up, Jack. No one misses you from the conning tower."
Benson laughed, though he said, warningly:
"I reckon we'll do as well to drop calling the gunboat the 'Dad boat'
instead of the 'parent vessel.'"
"Well, you needn't bother at all about the conning tower to-day," wound up
Eph, glancing at his watch. "It's after half-past three at this moment and
I understand we're to drop anchor about five o'clock."
So Skipper Jack settled back with a comfortable sigh. Truth to tell, it
was pleasant not to have any immediate duty, for his head throbbed, every
now and then, and he felt dizzy when he tried to walk.
"Who could have hit me in that fashion, last night, and for what earthly
purpose?" wondered the boy. "I've had some enemies, in the past, but I
don't know a single person about Dunhaven, now who has any reason for
wishing me harm."
Never a thought crossed his mind of suspecting Sam Truax. That worthy had
come with a note from David Pollard, the inventor of the boats. Sam,
therefore, must be all right, the boy reasoned.
Jack lay back on the upholstered seat. He sat with his eyes closed most of
the time, though he did not doze. At last, however, he heard the engine
room bell sound for reduced speed. Getting up, the young captain made his
way to the foot of the conning tower stairs.
"Making port, Hal?" he called.
"Yep," came the reply. "We'll be at anchor in five minutes more."
Jack made his way slowly to the door of the engine room.
"Eph," he called, "as soon as you've shut off speed, take Truax above and
you two attend to the mooring."
"Take this other man up with you," urged Sam Truax. "I don't know anything
about tying a boat up to moorings."
"Time you learned, then," returned Eph Somers, "if you're to stay aboard a
submarine craft."
"Take this other man up with you," again urged Truax.
Eph Somers turned around to face him with a good deal of a glare.
"What ails you, Truax? You heard the captain's order. You'll go with me."
"Don't be too sure of that," uttered Sam Truax, defiantly.
"If you don't go above with me, and if you don't follow every order you
get aboard this boat, I know where you _will_ go," muttered Eph,
decisively.
"Where?" jeered Sam.
"Ashore--in the first boat that can take you there."
"You seem to forget that I'm on board by David Pollard's order," sneered
Truax.
"All I am sure of," retorted Eph, "is that Jack Benson is captain on board
this craft. That means that he's sole judge of everything here when this
boat is cruising. If you were here by the orders of both owners, Jack
Benson would fire you ashore for good, just the same, after you've balked
at the first order."
"Humph! I--"
Clang! Jangle! The signal bell was sounding.
"Shut up," ordered Eph Somers, briskly. "I've got the engine to run on
signal from the watch officer."
There followed a series of signals, first of all for stopping speed, then
for a brief reversing of engines. A moment later headway speed ahead was
ordered. So on Eph went through the series of orders until the "Farnum"
had been manoeuvred to her exact position. Then, from above, Captain Jack's
voice was heard, roaring in almost his usual tones:
"Turn out below, there, to help make fast!"
"Take the lever, Williamson," directed Eph. "Come along lively, Truax."
"Humph! Let Williamson go," grumbled Truax.
"You come along with me, my man!" roared Eph, his face blazing angrily.
"Hustle, too, or I'll report you to the captain for disobedience of
orders. Then you'll go ashore at express speed. Coming?"
Sam Truax appeared to wage a very brief battle within himself. Then,
nodding sulkily, he followed.
"Hustle up, there!" Jack shouted down. "We don't want to drift."
Jack Benson stood out on the platform deck, holding to the conning tower
at the port side. A naval launch had just placed a buoy over an anchor
that had been lowered.
"Get forward, you two," Jack called briskly, "and make the bow cable fast
to that buoy."
Hal still sat at the wheel in the tower. As Eph and Truax crept forward
over the arched upper hull of the "Farnum," Hal sounded the engine room
signals and steered until the boat had gotten close enough to make the bow
cable fast. Then the stern cable was made fast, with more line, to another
buoy.
"A neat hitch, Mr. Benson," came a voice from the bridge of the "Hudson,"
which lay a short distance away. Jack, looking up, saw Lieutenant
Commander Mayhew leaning over the bridge rail.
"Thank you, sir," Jack acknowledged, saluting the naval officer.
The parent vessel and her two submarine charges now lay at anchor in the
harbor at Port Clovis, one of the towns down the coast from Dunhaven. This
mooring overnight was to be repeated each day until Annapolis should be
reached.
Within fifteen minutes the craft were surrounded by small boats from
shore. Some of these contained merchandise that it was hoped sailors would
buy. Other boats "ran" for hotels, restaurants, drinking places, amusement
halls, and all the varied places on shore that hope to fatten on Jack
Tar's money.
"I'd like to go ashore, sir," announced Sam Truax, approaching Captain
Jack.
"When?"
"Now."
"For how long?"
"Until ten o'clock to-night."
"Be back by that hour, then," Jack replied. "If you're not, you'll find
everything shut tight aboard here."
Truax quickly signaled one of the hovering boats, and put off in it. Eph
watched the boat for a few moments before he turned to Captain Jack to
mutter:
"Somehow, I wouldn't feel very badly about it if that fellow got lost on
shore!"