have been on the porch of the little hotel at Dunhaven. Only he was
anxious to know just how the boat would behave when it became time to
rise. That was all.

"How would you feel if we were running along like this, bent on driving
a torpedo against the hull of a big battleship?" questioned Eph.

"Curious," Jack answered.

"What about?"

"Wondering if we were going to succeed in the job."

"Put it another way," laughed Grant Andrews, shortly. "How would you
feel about being aboard a battleship in wartime, and suspecting that a
boat like this was nosing down in the water after you?"

Jack Benson made a little grimace.

"Serious business, this fighting on the ocean, isn't it?" he replied.

"It's stranger to think about than it is to be doing it," replied
Andrews, musingly. "I know. I was in the war with Spain."

"How did you feel?" asked Eph, quickly.

"Tired, most of the time," replied Andrews. "Sick some of the time, and
hungry the rest."

"But about being scared?" insisted Eph.

"I was kept too busy, generally, to have any time to give to being
scared. I was a soldier, and a soldier is a good deal like any other
workman. He does his work by habit, and soon gets over thinking much
about it."

There was a long pause, broken by Eph, saying:

"I wonder when they're going to let the boat rise?"

"When they're going to try to make it rise, you mean," corrected Jack
Benson.

"Same thing, I hope," muttered Eph Somers.

After some minutes more Jacob Farnum stepped down below.

"Why, it looks cozy here at night, doesn't it?" he called.

At sound of his voice the boys stepped out of the engine room into the
cabin.

"Mighty comfortable sort of place," continued the yard's owner, looking
around him. "We'll have to put in some books, won't we, so you young men
can read when you're doing nothing under water?"

"Maybe the time will come when we _can_ read," laughed Hal. "Just
now, sir, I'm afraid we're too busy with thinking and wondering."

"I'll confess to being a bit nervous myself," responded Mr. Farnum.
"Somehow, there's something uncanny about rushing through the depths of
the ocean in this fashion, not having any idea what danger you may be
close by."

"Such as running into the hull of some big liner that draws more than
forty feet of water," hinted Jack.

"We're fifty-eight feet below, now," remarked Mr. Farnum. "You didn't
guess that, did you? We sank eighteen feet more, on an even