ined
Jack Benson, artfully. "You've got to buck your boat against all the
older types that the Government already takes an interest in. Yet you
feel sure that you can do it. You don't believe the Pollard diving
boat is too young. Give us the same show you ask for your boat."

"Well, I've never seen any of your work--except these drawings,"
replied Mr. Pollard, indicating some sheets that lay on the table
before them.

The chums had succeeded in making the inventor's acquaintance through
the aid of the landlord. It was now eleven o'clock at night. Jack and
Hal had been in the inventor's room for the last three hours. Benson
had done most of the talking, though Hal had now and then put in some
effective words.

David Pollard was now thirty years of age, tall, lean and of pallid
countenance. He was a graduate of a technical school. Though not a
practical mechanic, he had a rather good lot of theory stored away in
his mind. He had inherited some money, soon after leaving school, but
this money had vanished in inventions that he had not succeeded in
marketing. Now, all his hopes in life were centered in the submarine
torpedo boat that was nearly completed. Pollard had had no money of
his own to put into the craft. Jacob Farnum was his friend and
financial backer.

No one could grasp how much success with his submarine boat meant to
this wearied yet hopeful inventor. For years all his schemes had been
laughed at by "practical" men. It was success, more than mere fortune,
for which David Pollard hungered. The officials of the Navy Department,
at Washington, had promised to inspect and try the boat, when finished,
but that was all the encouragement that had come from the national
capital.

If the "Pollard," as the new craft was at present named, should prove a
failure, then the inventor felt that he would be "down" indeed in the
world. Also, he must feel that he had buried one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars of the money of his loyal friend, Farnum.

In his present anxious, worried frame of mind, with few real believers
in the possible success of his boat, it was little wonder that David
Pollard was grateful for any intelligent interest or faith in his plans.
These two friends were but boys, nor had they had any experience in
submarine boat construction. Yet they had shown the inventor that they
knew much about machinery and marine engines in general, and Jack, with
his handy knack of sketching mach