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Submarine Boys and the Middies

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<h1>CHAPTER XIII: READY FOR THE SEA CRUISE</h1> For the next ten days things moved along without much excitement for the submarine boys. During that time they had an average of four sections a day of cadet midshipmen to instruct in the workings of the Pollard type of submarine torpedo boat. During the last few days short cruises were taken on the Severn River, in order that the middies might practise at running the motors and handling the craft. At such times one squad of midshipmen would be on duty in the engine room, another in the conning tower and on the platform deck. Of course, when the midshipmen handled the “Farnum,” under command of a Navy officer, the submarine boys had but little more to do than to be on board. Certainly they were not overworked. Yet all three were doing fine work for their employers in making the Navy officers of the future like the Pollard type of craft. After waiting a few days Jack Benson reported to the Annapolis police his experience with the mulatto “guide.” The police thought they recognized the fellow, from the description, and did their best to find him. The mulatto, however, seemed to have disappeared from that part of the country. There came a Friday afternoon when, as the last detachment of middies filed over the side into the waiting cutter, Lieutenant Commander Mayhew announced: “This, Mr. Benson, completes the instruction desired in the Basin and in the river. To-morrow and Sunday you will have for rest. On Monday, at 10 a.m., a section will report aboard for the first trip out to sea. Then you will show our young men how the boat dives, and how she is run under water. As none of our cadet midshipmen have ever been below in a submarine before, you will be sure of having eager students.” “And perhaps some nervous ones,” smiled Skipper Jack. “Possibly,” assented Mr. Mayhew. “I doubt it, though. Nervousness is not a marked trait of any young man who has been long enrolled at the Naval Academy.” “Can we have a slight favor done us, Mr. Mayhew?” Jack asked. “Any reasonable favor, of course.” “Then, sir, we'd like to spend a little time ashore, as we've been confined so long aboard. If I lock up everything tight on the boat until Sunday night, may we know that the 'Farnum' will be under the protection of the marine guard?” “I feel that there will not be the slightest difficulty in promising you that,” replied Mr. Mayhew. “I will telephone the proper authorities about it as soon as I go on shore.” All hands on board were pleased over the prospect of going ashore, with the exception of Sam Truax. “You don't need any guard on the boat,” he protested. “I don't want to go ashore. Leave me here and I'll be all the guard necessary.” “We're all going ashore,” Jack replied. “But I haven't any money to spend ashore,” objected Truax. “I'll let you have ten dollars on account, then,” replied Jack, who was well supplied with money, thanks to a draft received from Jacob Farnum. “I don't want to go ashore, anyway.” “I'm sorry, Truax, but it doesn't really make any difference. The boat will be closed up tight, and there wouldn't be any place for you to stay, except on the platform deck.” “You're not treating me fairly,” protested Sam Truax, indignantly. “I'm sorry you think so. Still, if you're not satisfied, all I can do is to pay you off to date. Then you can go where you please.” “I'm here by David Pollard's order. Do you forget that?” “He sent you along to us, true,” admitted Jack, “but I have instructions from Mr. Farnum to dismiss anyone whose work on board I don't like. Now, Truax, you're a competent enough man in the engine room, and there's no sense in having to let you go. You're well paid, and can afford the time on shore. I wouldn't make any more fuss about this, but do as the rest of us are going to do.” “Oh, I'll have to, then, since you're boss here,” grumbled Truax, sulkily. “I don't want to make it felt too much that I am boss here,” Jack retorted, mildly. “At the same time, though, I'm held responsible, and so I suppose I'll have to have things done the way that seems best to me.” Sam Truax turned to get his satchel. The instant his back was turned on the young commander Sam's face was a study in ugliness. “Oh, I'll take this all out of you,” muttered the fellow to himself. “I don't believe, Jack Benson, you'll go on the cruising next week. If you do, you won't be much good, anyway!” Ten minutes later a shore boat landed the entire party from the submarine craft. “Going with the rest of us, Truax?” inquired Jack, pleasantly. “No; I'm going to find a boarding-house. That will be cheaper than the hotel.” So the other four kept straight on to the Maryland House, giving very little more thought to the sulky one. It was not until after supper that Eph turned the talk back to Sam Truax. “I don't like the fellow, at all,” declared young Somers. “He always wants to be left alone in the engine room, for one thing.” “And I've made it my business, regular,” added Williamson, the machinist, “to see that he doesn't have his wish.” “He's always sulky, and kicking about everything,” added Eph. “I may be wrong, but I can't get it out of my head that the fellow came aboard on purpose to be a trouble-maker.” “Why, what object could he have in that?” asked Captain Jack. “Blessed if I know,” replied Eph. “But that's the way I size the fellow up. Now, take that time you were knocked senseless, back in Dunhaven. Who could have done that? The more I think about Sam Truax, the more I suspect him as the fellow who stretched you out.” “Again, what object could he have?” inquired Benson. “Blessed if I know. What object could anyone have in such a trick against you? It was a state prison job, if the fellow had been caught at the time.” “Well, there's one thing Truax was innocent of, anyway,” laughed Captain Jack. “He didn't have any hand in the way I was tricked and robbed by the mulatto.” “Blamed if I'm so sure he didn't have a hand in that, too,” contended Eph Somers, stubbornly. “Yet Mr. Pollard recommended him,” urged Jack. “Yes, and a fine fellow Dave Pollard is—true as steel,” put in Hal Hastings, quietly. “Yet you know what a dreamer he is. Always has his head in the air and his thoughts among the stars. He'd as like as not take a fellow like Truax on the fellow's own say-so, and never think of looking him up.” “Oh, we've no reason to think Truax isn't honest enough,” contended Jack Benson. “He's certainly a fine workman. As to his being sulky, you know well enough that's a common fault among men who spend their lives listening to the noise of great engines. A man who can't make himself heard over the noise of a big engine hasn't much encouragement to talk. Now, a man who can't find much chance to talk becomes sulky a good many times out of ten.” “We'll have trouble with that fellow, Truax, yet,” muttered Eph. “Oh, I hope not,” Jack answered, then added, significantly: “If he does start any trouble he may find that he has been trifling with the wrong crowd!” Very little more thought was given to the sulky one. The submarine boys and their companion, Williamson, enjoyed Saturday and Sunday ashore. All of them might have felt disturbed, however, had they known of one thing that happened. The naval machinists aboard the first submarine boat, the “Pollard,” now owned by the United States Government, found something slightly out of order with the “Pollard's” engine that they did not know exactly how to remedy. Sam Truax, hanging around the Basin that Sunday forenoon, was called upon. He gladly responded to the call for help. For four hours he toiled along in the “Pollard's” engine room. Much of that time he spent there alone. The job done, at last, Truax quietly received the thanks of the naval machinists and went ashore again. Yet, as he turned and walked toward the main gate of the grounds, there was a smile on Sam Truax's face that was little short of diabolical. “Now, if I can only get the same chance at the 'Farnum's' engines!” he muttered, to himself. “If I can, I think Mr. Jack Benson will find himself out of favor with his company, for his company will be out of favor with the Navy Department at Washington!” <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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