ce. They entered the wireless room with a bang and a
shout.

Jack fairly flung himself at the key and began pounding out the
_Southern Star's_ call. In reality it was only ten minutes, but to those
in that room it seemed hours before he got a reply. When he did, he
summoned the captain through the operator.

"Have I got authority to use your name, Senator?" asked the boy while he
waited for the announcement that the captain was in the wireless room.

"You have authority to use the name of the most powerful institution in
the world, my boy, the United States Government," said the Senator
solemnly. Then, as if he had suddenly thought of something, he hurriedly
left the room. Downstairs he once more applied himself to the telephone,
but this time he talked to the Secretary of the Navy.

Fifteen minutes after Jack had spoken to the Captain of the _Southern
Star_ that craft was anchored in the Chesapeake River waiting the
arrival of a gunboat hastily detailed by government wireless to proceed
at once up that river and take three prisoners off the _Southern Star_.
This latter order was the result of Senator Rivers' call to the Navy
Department.

Jack's happy task was then to break the good news to Captain Simms,
which he lost no time in doing, and the captain's deep gratitude, which
was none the less because he expressed it in few words, may be imagined.

"I declare," he said, "you boys have been my good angels all through.
You have helped me as if your own interests had been at stake. I don't
know how to thank you."

The code was yielded up by Judson without a struggle, which procured him
some leniency later on. But both he and Jarrow met with heavy punishment
for their misdeeds. Donald was allowed to go free on account of his
youth and the government's disability to prove that he had actually
anything to do with the theft of the code. After the news of his arrest
spread, the long threatened disaster to Judson's company happened and it
went into bankruptcy. Donald, the pampered and selfish, had to go to
work for a living. The boys heard that he had gone west. They were
destined to meet him again, however, as they were Thurman.

One of Jack's proudest possessions is a framed letter from the Secretary
of the Navy thanking him for his great aid and that of his friends in
the matter of the Navy Code, but he values the friendship of Captain
Simms as highly. Not long after the successful tests of the detector,
there was a