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nough behind to be able to observe everything without interfering with either torpedo craft. From looking at the "Pollard" Captain Jack glanced down at the water. His own boat's bows seemed to be cutting the water at a fast gait. The young skipper, knowing what he knew about both boats, could not understand this losing to the other craft. "The Navy men must know a few tricks with engines that we haven't guessed," he observed, anxiously, to young Hastings. "I don't know what it can be, then," murmured Hal, uneasily. "There aren't so confusingly many parts to a six-cylinder gasoline motor. They aren't hard engines to run. More depends on the engine itself than on the engineer." "But look over there," returned Captain Jack Benson. "You see the 'Pollard' taking the wind out of our teeth, don't you?" "Yes," Hal admitted, looking more puzzled. "Do you think our engines are doing the top-notch of their best?" asked Benson. "Yes; for Williamson is a crackerjack machinist. He knows our engines as well as any man alive could do." "Do you think it would do any good for you to go below, Hal?" "I will, if you say so," offered Hastings. "Yet there's another side to it." "What?" "Williamson might get it into his head that I went below because I thought he was making a muddle of the speed. As a matter of fact, he knows every blessed thing I do about our motors, and Williamson is loyal to the core." "I know," nodded Captain Jack. "I'd hate to hurt a fine fellow's feelings. Yet--confound it, I _do_ want to win this burst of speed. It means, perhaps, the quick sale of this boat to the Navy. If we're beaten it means, to the Secretary of the Navy, that he already has our best boat, and he might not see the need of buying the 'Farnum' at all." "Give Williamson two or three minutes more," begged Hal. "You might tell Eph, though, to repeat, and repeat, the signal for top speed. That'll show Williamson we're losing." Jack Benson walked to the conning tower, instructing Eph Somers in a low tone. "I've signaled twice, since the first time," Eph replied. "But here goes some more." "I wonder what's going wrong with our engines, then," muttered Captain Jack, uneasily. "It ain't in careless steering, anyway," grumbled Eph. "I'm going as straight as a chalk line." "I noticed that," Captain Jack admitted. He continued to look worried, for, by this time, the "Pollard" was at least a good two hundred and fifty
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