"No; I"m going up to the store to pick out a small stack of books. Hal, I believe we"re going on a cruise, and I mean to have something to read."
"I wonder if you know more than you"ve told me?" mused Hal, aloud.
"Not a blessed thing. I"m on the guessinglist, and I"m doing the best I know how at guessing."
Hal didn"t say any more, but accompanied his chum to the book-store.
There was a package for each of them to carry when they came out. Then they headed down, toward the shipyard.
It was well on toward one o"clock by the time that the chums stepped through the gate into the yard.
"Mr. Farnum is still at his office. That"s late for him," remarked Hal.
"Maybe some one has him on the guessinglist, too," laughed Benson
The night watchman came forward out of a shadow.
"Boss wants to see you young gentlemen," announced the watchman.
So Jack and Hal turned in there. As they entered the office a scene of "solid comfort" met their eyes. Shipbuilder and naval officer were lounging in easy chairs, smoking Havanas until the air was thick and white with the smoke.
"Sailing orders, Jack," announced Farnum.
"All right, sir," nodded the young skipper, looking at his watch. "I can pull out inside of twelve minutes."
"But you don"t have to," laughed Farnum. "You have until morning.
Where do you suppose you"re going?"
"I don"t know, sir."
"Curious, Jack?"
"I don"t care where we"re going," Benson smiled back. "When it"s a matter of business all parts of the earth look alike to me."
Lieutenant Danvers laughed heartily.
"Benson, lad," exclaimed the naval officer, "you"ve got the real make-up to serve in the Navy. It"s a pity we had to lose you."
"Don"t be too sure yet, sir, that the Navy has escaped having me,"
smiled back Skipper Jack.
"You don"t start until eight in the morning," went on the shipbuilder.
"Pollard got back this evening, and he goes with us. We take both the "Benson" and the "Hastings." Eph will have to command one of the boats, I suppose?"
"Yes, sir; and he"ll have to be notified at once, too," replied the young submarine commander.
"He"s on one of the craft now," replied Mr. Farnum. "Lieutenant Danvers goes with us, but he"s a guest, only, and will not have to help in handling the boats. His two men, Ewald and Biffens, will take steering turns. We"ve a four hundred and eighty mile sail before us, down to Groton Bay."
"I know of the place, sir," nodded Jack, without emotion or enthusiasm.
But Jacob Farnum"s next words all but lifted the submarine boys from their feet.
"Jack, my boy, and you, too, Hal, at Groton Bay you will have to make the very efforts of your lives. We"re to go through an official test for the United States Government. We shall be in compet.i.tion with five other types of submarine boats--the Rhinds, the Seawold, the Griffith, and the Blackson and Day. We shall have to meet--and I hope, vanquish--all the recognized types of submarine boats made in the United States."
"And we will beat them, too!" glowed Jack Benson, his eyes flashing and his fists clenching.
"By the way, Jack," continued Mr. Farnum, "I had two applications for work this afternoon, from men who appear to know all about gasoline marine engines. As we"ll be shorthanded for such a long cruise, do you suppose it would be worth while to look these fellows over and make up our minds about them?"
"Great Dewey--no!" burst, vehemently, from the young submarine captain.
"If we"re going into the test of our lives--for our very lives, I might say--then we don"t want aboard any strangers who show up looking for jobs at the last moment. No, sir; I won"t have them aboard--that is, not if I go, too!"
"I guess that"s sensible enough," nodded Mr. Farnum. "Well, get aboard, boys. Lieutenant Danvers will be out by ten o"clock. Don"t lie awake to-night, thinking too hard of what"s before you."
"Don"t you expect us to, sir," smiled Captain Jack. "We need our sleep to-night, if we"ve got such work ahead of us. It"s big, work, sir."
"Big enough," nodded Jacob Farnum. "If we come out of this big official test with all the points of the game, then Uncle Sam is likely to buy all the submarine boats we can make for a couple of years to come--and our fortunes will be made--yours, too, boys!"
This talk of the boys" fortunes being at stake was not a matter of idle words. Jack, Hal and Eph well understood that, if they came out successful, they would also be at least moderately well off. Messrs.
Farnum and Pollard were not of the kind to be n.i.g.g.ardly in giving rewards fairly won.
CHAPTER VI
JUDAS CO. INTRODUCE THEMSELVES:
Groton Bay, as every student of geography knows, is a nearly landlocked, well sheltered body of water, some seven miles long and three wide. At the mouth of the Groton river stands Colfax, a city of more than thirty thousand inhabitants.
This was about all that the submarine boys knew of their destination, until they arrived in the bay on the afternoon of the day after they left, Dunhaven.
Their run down had been a continuous one. Jack had had Biffens to relieve him at the wheel, while Mr. Farnum had helped Hal in the engine room. Besides, Besides, Lieutenant Danvers had stood a few tricks at the wheel.
While Jack came in the "Benson," which carried the two remaining loaded torpedoes, Eph had handled the "Hastings," with Ewald as relief.
Williamson had handled the engines of the latter boat. David Pollard standing relief engine room watch.
The work had been hard and confining. It was a relief to all hands when they found themselves heading into Groton Bay.
Not far from the city water front lay two United States gunboats, the "Chelsea" and the "Oakland." Near the gunboats a fleet of seven other submarine craft lay at moorings.
"We"re not the only crowd, then," mused Jacob Farnum, "that has seen fit to enter more than one boat. I shall have to get busy in the hunt for information."
"I"m not much worried about the triumph of the Pollard boats over compet.i.tors," declared Danvers, generously. "And, if anything can win for you, Mr. Farnum, it"s the having of such enthusiasts as your submarine boys to handle your boats in the official tests."
"Oh, I can depend upon my boys," replied Jacob Farnum, quickly. "I know all about them."
Yet, as the shipbuilder gazed from the conning tower at the rival submarines actual drops of cold sweat oozed out on his forehead.
Success meant so much to this shipbuilder, who had all his capital, to the last penny, invested in this submarine game.
"The worst of it is, we"ve got to keep on the lookout for dirty tricks!"