g
you wish to confess, the rest of us can bear witness and help straighten
matters out if you've done any wrong that you now regret."

Sam Truax feebly stretched out a hand that was hot and dry.

"Benson, will you give me your hand?"

"Certainly."

"Can you ever forgive me?" moaned the man.

"Why, what have you done?" asked Jack.

"That assault back in Dunhaven--"

"Was it you who knocked me out there?" demanded Benson sharply.

"Yes." In a shaking voice Truax confessed the details of the affair and
from that passed to Jack's trip to the suburbs of Annapolis.

"I found the mulatto in a low den. I told him you carried a lot of money
and that he could have it all if he'd decoy you somewhere, keep you all
night, and send you back to the Naval Academy looking like a tramp." He
then added the name of the mulatto.

"But why have you done this?" demanded Jack. "What have you against me?"

"I didn't do it on my own account. I did it for Tip Gaynor, a salesman for
Sidenham."

"The Sidenham Submarine Company?" cried Jack, deeply interested. "The
Sidenham people are our nearest competitors in the submarine business!" he
exclaimed.

"Yes; and they wanted to get the business away from the Pollard Company.
They told Tip Gaynor it would be worth ten thousand dollars to him for
each Sidenham boat he could sell to the Government. Tip hired me--"

"One moment, please," interrupted Jack. "Did the Sidenham officials know
that Gaynor intended to use such methods?"

"I don't believe they did," replied Truax.

"Humph! So Gaynor hired you to do all you could to disgrace me in the eyes
of the naval authorities and to injure the machinery in the engine room of
the submarine!"

"Yes. Tip said it was highly important that the Pollard boats should break
down while under the eyes of all Annapolis, so that it would seem that
they could not be depended upon."

Truax here became so ill that his audience had to wait until he could
proceed. Then Jack asked:

"What sort of looking fellow is Gaynor?"

"He was the black-bearded man who shanghaied you in the white knockabout.
He doesn't usually wear a beard. He grew it for the occasion."

"So, acting for Tip Gaynor, you undertook to ruin us all and the good name
of our boats! You even met Dave Pollard and got him to take you on as a
machinist for our boats!"

"Tip knew a man who was willing to introduce me to Mr. Pollard."

"It was like kindly, unsuspicious Dave Pollard to be tak