The gunboat now fell a little behind, leaving the two submarines some four hundred yards apart, but as nearly as possible on a line.

“Look at the crowd over on the ‘Pollard’s’ decks,” muttered Hal.  “They’re all Navy folks over there.”

“And they mean to beat such plain ‘dubs’ as they must consider us,” laughed Captain Jack, in an undertone.

“Will they beat us, though?” grinned Hal Hastings “You and I, Jack, happen to know that the ‘Farnum’ is a bit the faster boat by rights.”

Suddenly the signal broke out from the gunboat.

“Race her, Eph!” shouted Captain Jack.

“Aye, aye, sir!”

Eph Somers’s right hand caught at the speed signals beside the wheel.  He called for all speed, the bell jangling merrily in the engine room.

A little cheer of excitement went up from the cadets aboard the “Farnum” as that craft shot ahead over the waters.  The cadets were catching the thrill of what was virtually a race.  At the same time, though, these midshipmen could not help feeling a good deal of interest in the success of the “Pollard,” which was manned wholly by representatives of the Navy.

In the first three minutes the “Farnum” stole gradually, though slowly, ahead of the “Pollard.”  Then, to the disgust of all three of the submarine boys, the other craft was seen to be gaining.  Before long the “Pollard” had the lead, and looked likely to increase it.  Already gleeful cheers were rising from the all-navy crowd on the deck of the other submarine.

Behind the racers sped the “Hudson,” keeping just far enough behind to be able to observe everything without interfering with either torpedo craft.

From looking at the “Pollard” Captain Jack glanced down at the water.  His own boat’s bows seemed to be cutting the water at a fast gait.  The young skipper, knowing what he knew about both boats, could not understand this losing to the other craft.

“The Navy men must know a few tricks with engines that we haven’t guessed,” he observed, anxiously, to young Hastings.

“I don’t know what it can be, then,” murmured Hal, uneasily.  “There aren’t so confusingly many parts to a six-cylinder gasoline motor.  They aren’t hard engines to run.  More depends on the engine itself than on the engineer.”

“But look over there,” returned Captain Jack Benson.  “You see the ‘Pollard’ taking the wind out of our teeth, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Hal admitted, looking more puzzled.  “Do you think our engines are doing the topnotch of their best?” asked Benson.

“Yes; for Williamson is a crackerjack machinist.  He knows our engines as well as any man alive could do.”

“Do you think it would do any good for you to go below, Hal?”

“I will, if you say so,” offered Hastings.  “Yet there’s another side to it.”

“What?”

“Williamson might get it into his head that I went below because I thought he was making a muddle of the speed.  As a matter of fact, he knows every blessed thing I do about our motors, and Williamson is loyal to the core.”