"It'll be huge fun, anyway, if we can get a chance to cruise on a
submarine boat-under water and all!" glowed young Hastings. "Say,
there must be a wonderful thrill to going down deep in the ocean."

Thus they talked for another hour. It was very late when the two
turned in, nor did they go to sleep at once. Yet, when the half-past
six call came in the morning, both boys turned out in a jiffy. Excitement
took the place of rest with them. They breakfasted with appetite.
Shortly after half-past seven, though the yard was so near, Jack and
Hal set out for their first day's work at boat building.

The gate was open, though the yard, as they stepped inside, had a
deserted look. The partly finished hulls of two schooners lay on the
ways down by the water front. There were half a dozen sloops in
various stages of completion. There were two houses, close to the
water's edge in which, as the boys afterwards learned, motor boats
were built. But it was a rough shed, more than twenty feet high, and
at least one hundred and twenty feet long, running down to the shore,
that instantly caught Jack Benson's glance.

"There's where they must be putting the 'Pollard' in shape," he cried,
eagerly, as he pointed. Both youngsters hurried toward that shed. As
they reached it the inventor came into sight around the end. He was
hollow-eyed, though alert; he looked even more worried than he had looked
the night before.

"Ah, good morning, boys," was his greeting. "Early on hand, I see."

"When a fellow's whole heart is set on a thing, he isn't likely to lie
abed until the last moment, is he, Mr. Pollard?" inquired Benson.