scholar--ran away from school too young. But it seems to me----" He
lifted a booted foot and rested it on the low gunwale, "Workin' at long
distances, there's the pull of the tides...."

Sir William's eyeglass dropped. He recovered it and screwed it home.

"Am I right, sir?" asked the big man.

"You are," said the Scientist. "You've studied tides, too, have you?"

The Submarine Hunter chuckled. "I've learned to respect 'em," he
replied dryly. "Down the Malay Archipelago I learned something about
tides, spittin' overboard from salvage craft...." He stood upright.
"Well, sir, we'd better get to business. These gentlemen here are the
brains of the party"--he nodded at the group aft. "I'm only in the
picture to put them wise as to certain practical conditions of the
game...." He dropped his voice to a confidential undertone as they
walked aft. "The Navy scares me. It's so damned big, and there's so
much gold lace--and it's so almighty efficient...."

Half an hour's discussion settled the _modus operandi_ for the
experiment. The Submarine Commander rose from the gunwale and tossed
away his cigarette-end, then he grinned at the Submarine Hunter who
stood with one shoulder against the structure aft, shredding tobacco
into the palm of his hand.

"Gardez-vous, Old Sport!" he said, as he began to climb down into the
dinghy, where Sir William joined him.

"That's French, ain't it?" said the Submarine Hunter. "Don't speak the
lingo."

One of the Naval officers standing by the apparatus laughed. "It's a
challenge," he said. "Means 'Mind your eye!'"

The Hunter jerked his clasp knife in the direction of the fore-hatch.
"I can mind it all right," he replied grimly, and laughed with a sudden
disconcerting bark of amusement.

* * * * *

"Now," said the Submarine Commander as the pointed bows swung round for
the open sea, "we'll get away out of it. Must keep on the surface for
a while--too many short-tempered little patrol boats close in to let us
cruise with only a periscope showing." He waved his hand in the
direction of countless smudges of smoke ringing the clear horizon.
"But once we're clear of those we'll dive and hide somewhere for a
while. Give old man Gedge something to scratch his head about, lookin'
for us. Then we'll play round and test the apparatus.... You'll be
able to observe the compass all the time, and I'll give you the
distances. There's a young flood making