. "Morton was too good a
mechanic not to know bow to do his trick! He hasn't left us a
single chance for our lives!"

None the less Hal patiently tried to fit the plate back and make
the motor work, Lieutenant Jack, in the meantime, standing by
the board with the wrench in hand. In the next ten minutes several
efforts were made to start the motor, but all of them failed.

"And all for want of a bit of copper of a certain size, shape
and thickness," sighed Midshipman Dan Dalzell.

"It does seem silly, doesn't it," replied Lieutenant Jack with a
wan smile.

"At least," murmured Midshipman Wolgast, "we shall have a chance
to show that we know how to die like men of the Navy."

"Never say die," warned Ensign Eph Somers seriously, "until you
know you're really dead!"

This caused a laugh, and it eased them all.

"Well," muttered Jetson, "as I know that I can't be of any use
here I'm going back into the cabin and sit down. I can at least
keep quiet and make no fuss about it."

One after another the other midshipmen silently followed Jetson's
example. They sat three on either side of the cabin, once in
a while looking silently into the face of the others.

Not until many minutes more had passed did the three officers of the
"Dodger" cease their efforts to find a duplicate plate for the motor.

Kellogg and another of the seamen, though they met their chance of
death with grit enough, broke loose into mutterings that must have
made the ears of ex-seaman Morton burn, wherever that worthy was.

"I wish I had that scoundrel here, under my heel," raged Seaman
Kellogg.

"It will be wiser and braver, my man," broke in Lieutenant Jack
quietly, "not to waste any needless thought on matters of violence.
It will be better for us all if every man here goes to his death
quietly and with a heart and head free from malice."

"You're right, sir," admitted Kellogg. "And I wish to say, sir,
that I never served under braver officers."

"There won't be divers sent after us---at least, within the time
that we're going to be alive," spoke Midshipman Farley soberly.
"In the first place, Chesapeake Bay is a big place, and no Naval
officer would know where to locate us."

"Mr. Benson," broke in Jetson suddenly, "I heard once that you
submarine experts had invented a way of leaving a submarine boat
by means of the torpedo tube. Why can't you do that now?"

"We could," smiled Lieutenant Jack Benson, "if our compressed
air app