Then the gunboat moved over to temporary anchorage. A line between the
gunboat's bow and the lighthouse on Groton Point, to the northward, was
to furnish the imaginary starting line. This line the five competing
submarine torpedo boats must, at second gunfire, cross as nearly together
as possible. There were penalties, of course, for any one boat trying
to steal a lead over the rest.

By this time the fast gunboat "Oakland," which had a safe speed of
twenty-four knots an hour, under forced draught, lay to, some two miles
further out. The "Oakland's" task was to stick close to the leaders,
and, at the end, to decide which craft had won.

_Boom!_ The first gun sounded over the starboard side of the "Chelsea."
In five minutes' time the second gun would thunder out--and the racers
would be off!

Such a scurrying as there was then among these five little craft of war!

Captain Jack Benson had the wheel again. Henceforth, Lieutenant Danvers
was to be but a spectator--a judge, at need, and on his honor, as an
officer of the United States Navy, to show no partiality to those on
whose boat he found himself.

As Eph might be needed on deck, at any instant, he stood leaning against
the conning tower.

David Pollard was missing. He had gone below, had taken off his coat,
and was standing in shirt-sleeves, ready to render any possible aid to
Hal Hastings, the young chief engineer on whom so much depended in the
six hours to come.