“I know it,” said Frank, with sincere regret.  “It just slipped out.”

“If you’ll take my advice, you’ll see that it doesn’t slip out again,” advised Jack.

“I’ll be mum from now on,” said his chum with a slight smile.  “But now I guess we may as well get what things we may need.”

“All right,” said Jack.

They picked up their caps and made their way from the house.

And while they are engaged in the task of out-fitting themselves for the coming expedition, a few words concerning the two chums may well be written.

Jack Templeton was an English boy some eighteen years of age.  Born in the British Isles, he had nevertheless spent most of his life in Africa, his father having conducted a small trading station upon the coast of that continent.  Jack’s father was a scholar and from him the boy had acquired a good education.

Jack’s father died, leaving the boy as a legacy nothing but the little African trading store; and Jack set about to make his own living there and to put by enough so that within a few years he would be able to return to the land of his birth.

And then fate took a hand in shaping his career.

A party from a passing schooner stopped for supplies at Jack’s store, and, in the lad’s absence, departed without paying for the provisions.  Jack set forth to collect.  He climbed aboard the schooner before it hove anchor, and, payment being refused by the schooner’s crew, a fight ensued.

Jack was forced to take refuge in the hold, while the ship got under way.  He succeeded in making his way to the next compartment, where he was surprised to find two other prisoners.  These he released, and they proved to be a British secret service agent and Frank Chadwick.

Frank was an American boy.  He had been separated from his father, and while seeking him in Naples had been shanghaied aboard the schooner, and there he was, following a mutiny among the crew, as Jack found him.  By some resourcefulness and not a little fighting, the lads overcame the crew and made their way back to Jack’s home, taking the other prisoner with them.

Here they joined an expedition in which the secret service agent was implicated, and in this manner met Lord Hastings.  The latter took an interest in them at once, and, after they had proved their mettle, the British nobleman took them aboard his own vessel as midshipmen.

Then followed a series of exciting adventures, which had led them to many parts of the world.  They had been instrumental in the first big victory of the British fleet off Heligoland; they had taken part in the pursuit of the German cruiser Emden, “the terror of the seas,” and had been in at the death; they had been with the British fleet that had sunk the last German squadron upon the oceans—­off the Falkland Islands; they had taken part in many and dangerous other exploits, having more than once been in the heart of the enemy’s territory; and always they had returned safely.