“That depends,” Skipper Jack replied, “upon a man's ability in such a subject.”

“Is it long enough time, sir, for a boy?”

That was rather a hard dig. Instantly the other cadets became all attention.

“It depends upon the boy, as it would upon the man,” Jack answered.

“Do you consider, Mr. Benson, that you know all about submarine boats, sir?”

“Oh, no.”

“Who does, sir?”

“No one that I ever heard of,” Jack answered. “Few men interested in submarine boats know much beyond the peculiarities of their own boats.”

“And that applies equally to boys, sir?”

“Yes,” Jack smiled.

“Do you consider yourself, sir, fully competent to handle this craft?”

“I'd rather someone else would say it,” Jack replied. “My employers, though, seem to consider me competent.”

“What is this material, sir?” continued the cadet, resting a hand on a piston rod.

“Brass,” Benson replied, promptly.

“Do you know the specific gravity and the tensile strength of this brass?”

“That will do, Mr. Merriam. Your questions appear to go beyond the limits of ordinary instruction, and to partake more of the nature of a cross-examination. Such questions take up the time of the instruction tour unnecessarily.”

Cadet Merriam flushed slightly, as he saluted the naval officer. Then the cadet's jaws settled squarely. He remained silent.

A few more questions and the hour was up.

Lieutenant Commander Mayhew gave the order for the cadets to pass above and embark in the cutters. He remained behind long enough to say to the three submarine boys:

“You have done splendidly, gentlemen—far better than I expected you to do. If you manage the sea instruction as well, in the days to come, our cadets will have a first-class idea of the handling of the Pollard boats.”

“I wish, sir,” Jack replied, after thanking the officer, “that the cadets were not required to say 'sir' to us. It sounds odd, and I am quite certain that none of the young men like it.”

“It is necessary, though,” replied Mr. Mayhew. “They are required to do it with all civilian instructors, and it would never do to draw distinctions on account of age. Yes; it is necessary.”

“That will be all for to-day, Mr. Benson, and thank you and your friends for some excellent work,” said Lieutenant Commander Mayhew, when the third squad had filed away.

“Say, for hard work I'd like this job right along,” yawned Eph Somers, when the three were alone in the cabin. “Just talking three times a day—what an easy way of living!”

“It's all right for a while,” agreed Jack. “But it would grow tiresome after a few weeks, anyway. Lying here in the Basin, and talking like a salesman once in a while, isn't like a life of adventure.”

“Oh, you can sigh for adventure, if you wish,” yawned Eph. “As for me, I've had enough hard work to appreciate a rest once in a while. Going into the town to-night, Jack?”

“Into town?” laughed the young skipper. “I went last night—and some of the folks didn't do a thing to me, did they?”

“Not in a rush,” Jack answered. “If I do, the police may start at once, and that mulatto and his friends, being on the watch, will take the alarm and get away. If I wait two or three days, then the mulatto's crowd will think I've dropped the whole thing. I reckon the waiting game will fool them more than any other.”

“Yes, and all the money they got away from you will be spent,” muttered Eph.

Jack, none the less, decided to wait and think the matter over.

Supper over, the submarine boys, for want of anything else to do, sat and read until about nine o'clock. Then Jack looked up.

“This is getting mighty tedious,” he complained. “What do you fellows say to getting on shore and stretching our legs in a good walk?”

“In town?” grinned Eph, slyly.

Jack flushed, then grinned.

“No!” he answered quietly; “about the Academy grounds.”

“I wonder if it would be against the regulations for a lot of rank outsiders like us to go through the grounds at this hour?”

“I wonder, though, if it would be in good taste for us to go prowling through the grounds at this hour?” persisted Hal.

“There's one sure way to find out,” proposed Benson. “We can try it, and, if no marine sentry chases us, we can conclude that we're moving about within our rights. Come along, fellows.”

Putting on their caps, the three went up on the platform deck. The engine room door was locked and Williamson and Truax had already turned in. There was a shore boat at the landing. Jack sent a low-voiced hail that brought the boat out alongside.

“Will it be proper for us to go through the Academy grounds at this hour?” Jack inquired of the petty officer in the stern.

“Yes, sir; there's no regulation against it. And, anyway, sir, you're all stationed here, just now.”

“Thank you. Then please take us ashore.”

At this hour the walks through the grounds were nearly deserted. A few officers, and some of their ladies living at the naval station, were out. The cadets were all in their quarters in barracks, hard at study, or supposed to be.

“I wonder if these cadets here ever have any real fun?” questioned Eph Somers.

“I've heard—or read—that they do,” laughed Hal.

“What sort of fun?”

“Well, for one thing, the cadets of the upper classes haze the plebe cadets a good deal.”

“Humph! That's fun for all but the plebes. Who are the plebes, anyway?”

“The new cadets; the youngest class at the Academy,” Hal replied.

“What do they do to the plebe?” Eph wanted to know.

“I guess the only way you could find that out, Eph, would be to join the plebe class.”

“Reckon, when I come to Annapolis, I'll enter the class above the plebe,” retorted Somers.

The three submarine boys had again approached the cadet barracks building.

“Here comes a cadet now, Eph,” whispered Jack. “If he has the time, I don't doubt he'd be glad to answer any questions you may have for him.”

The cadet, however, suddenly turned, coming straight toward them, smiling.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” was the cadet's greeting.

“Good evening,” was Jack's hearty reply.

“You've never been here before, have you, sir?”

“Never,” Jack confessed.

“Then I take it you have never, sir, seen the camelroorelephant?”

“The cam—” began Eph Somers.

Then he stopped, clapping both hands to his right jaw.

“Won't you please hand that to us in pieces?” begged Eph, speaking as though with difficulty.

The cadet laughed heartily, then added:

“Don't try to pronounce it, gentlemen, until you've seen the camelroorelephant. It's a cadet joke, but it's well worth seeing. Shall I take you to it?”

“Why, yes, if you'll be good enough,” Jack assented, heartily.

The cadet glanced quickly about him, then said in a low voice:

“This way, please, gentlemen.”

“Gentlemen, I must ask you to close your eyes, and keep them closed, on honor, until I ask you to open them again. You won't have to keep your eyes closed more than sixty seconds before the camelroorelephant will be ready for inspection. Now, eyes closed, please.”

Lingering only long enough to make sure that his request had been met, the cadet stole noiselessly away.

Nor was it many seconds later when all three of the submarine boys began to feel suddenly suspicious.

“I'm going to open my eyes,” whispered Eph.

“You're on honor not to,” warned Jack Benson, also in a whisper.

“I didn't give my word,” retorted Eph, “and I'm going to—oh, great shades of Santiago!”

The very genuine note of concern in Eph's voice caused Jack and Hal to open their own eyes instantly.

Nor could any of the three repress a quick start.

“We're in for it!” breathed Jack, in an undertone. “We're in for something real and startling, I reckon. Fellows, brace up and take your medicine, whatever it is, like men!”

“Perhaps you may,” retorted Cadet Merriam, “though, first of all, it will be necessary to prove yourselves worthy of the privilege, SIR.”

“Anything within our power,” promised Jack.

“Then, SIR, let me see you all three stand 'at attention.'”

“At attention” is the rigid attitude taken by a United States soldier or sailor when in the presence of his officers. Jack had already seen men in that attitude, and did his best to imitate it in smart military manner. Eph and Hal did likewise.

“No, no, no, you dense blockheads!” uttered Cadet Midshipman Merriam. “'At attention' upside down—on your hands!”

The other cadet midshipmen now hemmed in closely about the three. Jack thought he caught the idea. He bent over, throwing his feet up in the air and resting on his hands. Unable to keep his balance, he walked two or three steps.

“I didn't tell you to walk your post, blockhead!” scowled Mr. Merriam. “Stand still when at attention.”

“You're the rawest recruits, the worst landlubbers I've ever seen,” declared Cadet Midshipman Merriam, with severe dignity. “Rest, before you try it any further.”

The smile had all but left Jack Benson's lips, though he tried to keep it there. Hal Hastings made the most successful attempt at looking wholly unconcerned. Eph's face was growing redder every minute. It is a regrettable fact that Eph was really beginning to want to fight.

“See here,” ordered Mr. Merriam, suddenly, taking Jack by the arm, “you're a horse, a full-blooded Arab steed—understand!”

He gave young Benson a push that sent that youngster down to the ground on all fours.

“You're General Washington, out to take a ride on your horse,” announced Mr. Merriam, turning to Hal. “It's a ride for your health. Do you understand? It will be wholly for your health to take that ride!”

Hal Hastings couldn't help comprehending. With a sheepish grin he sat astride of Jack Benson's back as the latter stood on all fours.

“Go ahead with your ride, General,” called Mr. Merriam.

Two of the young men followed, holding Eph by the arms between them. Mr. Merriam now turned upon the unhappy freckled boy.

“Down on all fours,” ordered Mr. Merriam. “You're the measly dog that barked at General Washington on that famous ride. Bark, you wretched yellow cur—bark, bark, bark!”

Though Eph Somers was madder than ever, he had just enough judgment remaining to feel that the wisest thing would be to obey instructions. So, on all fours, Eph raced after Jack, barking at him.

“See how frightened the horse is,” muttered one of the midshipmen.

Taking the hint, Jack shied as well as he could.

“That's all,” said Mr. Merriam, at last. “All of that, at least.”

As the three submarine boys rose, each found himself gently held by a pair of cadet midshipmen. It was a more or less polite hint that the ordeal was not yet over. Mr. Merriam turned to whisper to one of the cadets, who darted inside the barracks building. He was back, promptly, carrying a folded blanket on his arm.

Jack Benson's two captors suddenly hurled him across the length of the blanket with no gentle force. Instantly the cadets holding the blankets straightened up, jerking it taut. Up into the air a couple of feet bounded Jack. As his body came down the cadets holding the blanket gave it a still harder jerk. This time Jack shot up into the air at least four feet. It was the same old blanket-tossing, long popular both in the Army and Navy. Every time Jack landed the blanket was given a harder jerk by those holding it. Benson began to go higher and higher.

As for escape, that was out of the question. No sooner did the submarine boy touch the blanket than he shot skyward again. Had he desired to he could not have called out. The motion and the sudden jolts shook all the breath out of him.

“Ugh! Hm! Pleasant, isn't it?” uttered Hal Hastings, grimly, under his breath.

“If they try to do that to me,” whispered Eph, hotly, under his breath, “I'll fight.”

“More simpleton you, then!” Hal shot back at him in warning. “What chance do you think you stand against a crowd like this?”

Just as suddenly as it had begun the blanket-tossing stopped. Yet, hardly had Jack been allowed to step out than Hal Hastings was unceremoniously dropped athwart the blanket. The tossing began again, to the chant of:

Right plentifully were these cadet midshipmen avenging themselves for having had to say “sir” to these young submarine boys that day.

“I suppose they'll try that on me!” gritted Eph Somers to himself. “If they do—”

That was far as he got, for Eph was suddenly flung upon the blanket.

Then how Eph did go up and down! It was as though these cadet midshipmen knew that it would make Eph mad, madder, maddest! These budding young naval officers fairly bent to their work, tautening and loosening on the blanket until their muscles fairly ached.

It was lofty aerial work that Eph Somers was doing. Up and up—higher and higher! Without the need of any effort on his own part young Somers was now traveling upward at the rate of ten or eleven feet at every punctuated bound.

Then, suddenly, there came a sound that chilled the blood of every young cadet midshipman hazer present.

“Halt! Where you are!”

Under the shadow of the barracks building a naval officer had appeared. He now came forward, a frown on his face, eyeing the culprits.

It is no merry jest for cadet midshipmen to be caught at hazing! And here were some thirty of them—red-handed!

“May I offer a word, sir?” asked Jack, wheeling upon the officer.

“You were one of the victims of a hazing, were you not?” demanded the officer, regarding Jack, keenly.

“Why, could you call it that, sir?” asked Jack, a look of innocent surprise settling on his face. “We called it a demonstration—an explanation.”

“Demonstration? Explanation?” repeated the officer, astonished in his turn. “What do you mean, Mr.—er—?”

“Benson,” Jack supplied, quietly.

“I think you would better tell me a little more, Mr. Benson,” pursued the unknown naval officer.

“Why, it was like this, sir,” Jack continued. “My two friends—Hastings and Somers—and myself were talking about the West Point and Annapolis hazings, of which we had heard and read. We were talking about the subject when a cadet came along. I suggested to Somers that we ask the cadet about hazing. Well, sir, to make a long story short, some of the cadets undertook to show us just how hazing is—or used to be—done at Annapolis.”

“That's the way I took it,” replied Jack. “So did Hastings and Somers. We've enjoyed ourselves more than anyone else here has.”

This was truth surely enough, for, in the last two minutes, not one of the cadet midshipmen present could have been accused of enjoying himself.

“Then what took place here, Mr. Benson, really took place at your request?” insisted the naval officer.

“It all answered the questions that we had been asking,” Jack replied, promptly, though, it must be admitted, rather evasively.

“This is your understanding, too, Mr. Hastings?” demanded the officer.

“Surely,” murmured Hal.

“You, Mr. Somers?”

“I—I haven't had so much fun since the gasoline engine blew up,” protested Eph.

For some moments the naval officer regarded the three submarine boys, solemnly, in turn. From them he turned to look over the cadet midshipmen. The latter looked as stolid, and stood as rigidly at attention, as ever.

“Under this presentation of the matter,” said the officer, after a long pause, “I am not prepared to say that there has been any violation of discipline. At least, no grave infraction. However, some of these young gentlemen are, I believe, absent from their quarters without leave. Mr. Merriam?”

“I have permission to be absent from my quarters between nine and ten, sir.”

“Mr. Caldwell?”

“Absent from quarters without permission, sir.”

So on down through the list the officer ran. Nine of the young men proved to have leave to be away from their quarters. The other seven did not have such permission. The names of these seven, therefore, were written down to be reported. The seven, too, were ordered at once back to their quarters.

Having issued his instructions, the naval officer turned and walked away. Jack and his comrades, too, left the scene.

“Gentlemen,” he said, earnestly, as he reached them, “it may not be best for me to be seen lingering here to talk with you. But my comrades wanted me to come after you and to say that we think you bricks. You carried that off finely, Mr. Benson. None of us will ever forget it.”

“It wasn't much to do,” smiled Jack, pleasantly.

“It was quick-witted of you, and generous too, sir,” rejoined Mr. Merriam, finding it now very easy to employ the “sir.” “Probably you agree with us that no great crime was committed, anyway. But, just the same, hazing is under a heavy ban these days. If you hadn't saved the day as you did, sir, all of our cadet party might have been dismissed the Service. Those absent from quarters without leave will get only a few demerits apiece. We have that much to thank you for, sir, and we do. All our thanks, remember. Good night, sir.”

“My courage was down in my boots for a while,” confessed Hal Hastings, as the three chums continued their walk back to the Basin.

“No; when the cadets were caught at it,” replied Hal.

“Say, Jack,” demanded Eph, “do you ever give much thought to the future life?”

“Meaning the life in the next world?” questioned Benson.

“Yes.”

“I sometimes give a good deal of thought to it,” Jack confessed.

“Then where do you expect to go, when the time comes?”

“Why?”

“After the whoppers you told that officer?”

“I didn't tell him even a single tiny fib,” protested Jack, indignantly.

“Oh, you George Washington!” choked Eph Somers.

“Well, I didn't,” insisted Jack. “Now, just stop and think. Weren't we all three discussing hazing?”

“Yes.”

“Then that part of what I told the officer was straight. Now, Eph, when we saw that first cadet come along, didn't I suggest to you to ask him about hazing?”

“Ye-es,” admitted Somers, thoughtfully.

“Well, rather,” muttered Eph.

“Now, young man, that's all I told the officer, except that we enjoyed our entertainment greatly.”

“Did we enjoy it, though?” demanded Eph Somers, bridling up.

“I did,” replied Jack, “and I spoke for myself. I enjoyed it as I would enjoy almost any new experience.”

“So did I,” added Hal, warmly. “It was rough—mighty rough—but now I know what an Annapolis hazing is like, and I'm glad I do.”

“Well, I want to tell you I didn't enjoy it,” blazed Eph. “It was a mighty cheeky—”

“Then why did you let the officer imagine you enjoyed it?” taunted Jack.

While Hal put in, slyly:

“Eph, you're too quick to talk about others fibbing. From the evidence just put in, it's evident that you're the only one of the three who fibbed any. Won't you please walk on the other side of the road? I never did like to travel with liars.”

“Oh, you go to Jericho!” flared Eph. But, as he walked along, he blinked a good deal, and did some hard thinking.

“Who?” queried Hal.

“That officer who caught the crowd at it.”

“Do you think he cared?”

“Of course he did,” said Jack, positively. “He'd rather have gone hungry for a couple of days than have to report that bunch for hazing.”

“Then why was he so infernally stiff with the young men?”

“He had to be; that's the answer. That officer, like every other officer of the Navy detailed here, is sworn to do his full duty. So he has to enforce the regulations. But don't you suppose, fellows, that officer was hazed, and did some hazing on his own account, when he was a cadet midshipman here years ago? Of course! And that's why the officer didn't question us any more closely than he did. He was afraid he might stumble on something that would oblige him to report the whole crowd for hazing. He didn't want to do it. That officer, I'm certain, knew that, if he questioned us too closely, he'd find a lot more beneath the surface that he simply didn't want to dig up.”

“Would you have told the truth, if he had questioned you searchingly, and pinned you right down?” demanded Eph Somers.

Before nine o'clock the next morning news of the night's doings back of barracks had spread through the entire corps of cadet midshipmen.

With these young men of the Navy there was but one opinion of the submarine boys—that they were trumps, wholly of the right sort.

As a result, Jack, Hal and Eph had hundreds of new friends among those who will officer the Navy of the morrow.

Not so bad, even just as a stroke of business!

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:

“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.

“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.

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.”

“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.

“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.

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!”