“Ah, here you are!” cried Lieutenant Abercrombie, as he hurried up and Captain Nakasura vanished beyond middle distance.  “Benson, dear old fellow, I want just a word with you before dinner is served,” continued the Briton, thrusting his arm through Jack’s and drawing him away after a nod of apology to Hal and Eph.  “Benson, I’ve had something on my mind all day; something I have had instructions to broach to you.  I have been waiting for the right moment.  Now, I must breathe just a word or two, and then let you think it over during dinner, don’t you know?”

“See here,” smiled Jack, standing back, sudden suspicion in his eyes.  “Don’t tell me you’ve been instructed to see whether I’ll enter the British submarine service.”

“Just that, dear old chap!” beamed Abercrombie, enthusiastically.  “But how could you guess?  Fact, though!  And not only you, but Hastings and Somers as well, don’t you know!”

“You’re the fourth to spring this on us tonight,” answered Jack Benson, soberly.  “And the answer will have to be the same for all of you.”

“The same for all of us, dear chap?” demanded Abercrombie.  “How can that be?”

“The answer in every case is the same,” retorted Jack.  “If our own government doesn’t want us, no other government can have us.  We stand by our own Flag.”

“Eh?  What is this?” muttered Lieutenant Ulwin, coming unexpectedly upon the pair.  “Foreign government competing for you lads, Benson?  This won’t do!”

“Which is what I have just had the honor of telling Mr. Abercrombie,” smiled Jack, earnestly.

CHAPTER XXIV

THEIR LIVES DEEDED TO THE FLAG

Secretary Sanders, Secretary of the Navy, looked up at the three young men who stood in line at the right-hand side of his desk.

It was two days later; two days during which Jack, Hal and Eph had had little to do except roam about Washington and see all the sights of the National Capital.  This they had varied by dropping in at the United Service Club.

“Gentlemen,” remarked the Secretary of the Navy, “you have not yet been relieved of your detail to the gunboat ‘Sudbury.’”

“It’s coming now,” thought each of the three boys to himself, with a great wave of dismay.  “We are to be no longer of the Navy.”

“I will give instructions at once,” continued Secretary Sanders, “to have orders issued relieving you from that duty.”

“Yes; it has come,” muttered Jack, drearily, to himself.  “Our service with the Navy is over.”

“Gentlemen,” and now, for a few seconds, the voice of the Secretary seemed far away indeed, “I am sensible of all you have done for your country, and above all, of the zeal you have shown.  Besides, I have in mind the fact that you have made yourselves among the most expert of all handlers of submarine torpedo boats.  If it can be arranged, I wish to keep all three of you actively in the United States Navy.”