“We do,” came the chorused answer.

“But if I were to tell you,” responded Farnum, speaking as gravely as ever, “it would be to reveal to the whole world one of the strongest points in our plan of submarine operation.  You will understand that, of course, and will realize that we do not care to explain anything so valuable, when that idea is not yet patented.”

“I suppose you’re right about that,” admitted one of the journalists, thoughtfully.  “We’d like awfully to know just how the feat is accomplished, and you have equally good reasons for not telling us.”

“Have you much genius for machinery?” whispered one of the women writers to a man beside her.  “For, you know, we’ve been promised a chance to visit the boat.  If you keep your eyes open, very likely you can detect how it is possible to leave the ‘Pollard’ when she’s on the bottom—­a performance that isn’t possible with any other type of submarine torpedo boat.”

Jacob Farnum now slipped away to countermand his orders for a diver and wrecking apparatus, the newspaper people also seizing the chance to send another wire to their home newspapers.

After that Captain Jack received one-third of the party aboard the “Pollard.”  He gave them a short trip on the surface.  Then, pressed to do so, he submerged the boat for two minutes.  After that the rest of the correspondents were taken out and below the water.  Most people are not particularly eager, at first, for a trip under the water in submarine boats, but with the newspaper fraternity it is different.  They are always on the lookout for any new experience, no matter how dangerous it may seem to be.  It is a part of their calling.

Yet not one in all this party of thirty trained, keen-minded people managed to penetrate the secret of how Captain Jack had been able to leave and return to the “Pollard” while that craft lay on the bottom of the harbor.

When all had visited the boat, and had sunk with her, Jacob Farnum took the party in carriages to his home, where luncheon was served.  The boatbuilder, by the use of all his tact, kept the party together until it was time, to drive them to the railway station and see them aboard the train.

In this way, he prevented any of his visitors from falling into the hands of the Melville people.  Consequently, when the next day’s papers appeared there was much in them about the wonderful work done by Captain Jack Benson in a “Pollard” submarine, but there was not even as much as a mention of the fact that any rival submarine boatyard existed in Dunhaven.

“That is one long march stolen on the Melville foes,” laughed Jacob Farnum to Benson.  “It has been a splendid bit of business, Jack, and you boys have helped it all through in great fashion.  To-day, we have the satisfaction of knowing that people all through the country are talking about the ‘Pollard.’”

“That fellow Benson is being a lot talked about to-day,” declared Mr. Melville, after scanning two or three of the morning papers.