“Tell you what I’m going to do,” suddenly exploded Eph.  “I’m going to Jake Farnum and ask him, straight, whether that snob of a duffer is going to be put in here over us, with leave to kick us out when he chooses.”

“Don’t you do it,” advised Hal, with a shake of his head.

“Why not?”

“Our employer is absorbed, and, troubled as much as he wants to be, now,” rejoined Hastings.  “When there’s anything he wants us to know, and he can find time, he’ll tell us.”

“Huh!” half assented Eph.

“Don’t be forward about it,” continued Hal.  “Just play the waiting game and rely upon Mr. Farnum being as fair and square as he has any chance to be.”

“Hum” again nodded Eph.  “Well, anyway, with farm labor at a premium, I’m not going to stay aboard to black the duffer’s shoes.”

“Fellows, listen!” commanded Jack Benson, suddenly looking up.

Then he told them both the thought and the scheme that had been in his mind all that day.  While the young captain was talking his two mates were still—­Hal, because it was his nature, and Eph Somers because he was actually staggered into silence.

“That’s what I’ve been thinking of,” Jack wound up.

“Don’t you do it, old fellow—­don’t you dare!” ordered Hal, sitting up straighter and resting an appealing hand on his chum’s shoulder.

“But think of the lives that have been lost on submarine boats during the last few years,” pleaded Jack Benson, seriously.

“And you want to add your life to the others,” retorted Hal, with mocking irony.

“I want to save, perhaps, hundreds of lives in the future,” returned Jack, spiritedly.

“Then, at least, old chum,” begged Hal, “tell your scheme to Mr. Farnum, and let him hire a trained diver to make the experiment.”

“You think there’s a lot of danger in it, do you?” queried Captain Jack, mildly.

“I certainly do,” said Hastings, with emphasis.

“Then I’ll do the trick myself,” contended Jack.  “I’m not going to think up a trick too dangerous for myself, and then hire another man to take all the risk for me.”

Hal said no more.  He knew the folly of trying to persuade his chum out of a decision like the present one.

“I don’t believe Farnum will let you try it,” hinted Eph.  “It sounds too dangerous.”

“Mr. Farnum won’t know what it is until it’s been done,” responded young Captain Benson, with a light laugh, as he rose from the table.  “Fellows, I’m going on shore for a little while.  Look the electric motor over, and test the compressed air apparatus.  We want to be sure that everything is working right.”

“Let me go ashore with you,” suggested Hal, also rising.

“Not this time,” laughed Jack.  “You might try to say something to Mr. Farnum to queer my plan.  Stay here.  You and Eph make mighty sure that everything is in running order.”