that the Pollard boat can do things that no other submarine craft are ever trusted to try alone.  And now, all that remains to show is that, at the end of a long voyage, we can approach a coast, unseen, even though thousands of people are probably looking for us, and that we can get into a harbor without being detected; that, in fact, we could do anything we might have a mind to do to an enemy’s ships that might be in that harbor.  But now, sir, you propose that, lest we have accidents, it will be best to rise to the surface and enter the harbor at Spruce Beach as plainly and stupidly as though the ‘Benson’ were some mere lumber schooner.”

“I see the thing just the way Jack Benson does,” murmured David Pollard, thrusting his hands down deep in his trousers pockets.

“Oh, well, if I’m voted down, I’ll give in,” laughed Jacob Farnum.  “I wonder, though, how Hal and Eph feel about this?”

“I don’t have to ask them,” nodded Captain Jack, confidently.

“Why not?”

“We settled it all, days ago, sir.”

“And they both agreed with you?”

“Down to the last jot, Mr. Farnum.  They saw the beauty and the boldness of the plan.”

Oh, well, go ahead, then, responded Mr. Farnum, rising and standing by the cabin table.  “Of course, the picturesque and romantic possibilities of the scheme are plain enough to me.  We’ll have the people at Spruce Beach agape with curiosity, then wild with enthusiasm.  And, really, to be sure, we have to arouse the enthusiasm of the American people over this whole game.  That’s the surest way of forcing Congress to spend more money on our boats.”

“Where are you going, Jake?” called the inventor, as his partner started aft.

“To the stateroom, to get a little nap,” replied the shipbuilder.  “We’re not by any means due at Spruce Beach yet.”

“Jake Farnum is surely not a coward,” chuckled Mr. Pollard, as the stateroom door closed.  “Nor is he over anxious about any detail in our little game, or he couldn’t go to sleep at this important time.  I know I couldn’t get a wink of sleep if I turned in now.  I’ve simply got to sit up, wide awake, until I see the finish of your bold stroke, Jack Benson.”

Captain Jack laughed easily, then glanced at his watch to note the lapse of time since he had made his last calculation of their whereabouts.  It is one thing to be in the open air, navigating a vessel, but it is quite another affair to be fifty-odd feet below the surface, calculating all by the distance covered and the course steered.

“Any deviation in the course, Eph?” Captain Jack called up into the conning tower.

“Not by as much as a hair’s breadth,” retorted young Somers, almost gruffly, for with him, to depart from a given course, was well nigh equal to a capital crime.

Jack touched a button in the side of the table.  Obeying the summons, quiet Hal Hastings thrust his head out into the cabin.