Then, turning to his employers, Jack went on:

"The way Hal and I figured it out, sir, the 'Benson' is really the
faster boat. But the Rhinds people may have been overheating their
engines--slightly, systematically, and using a lot of water to cool
the metal. Now, if that is the case, they may be doing their best at
forced speed. Hal and I determined, if we didn't lose more than a
quarter of a mile an hour, we'd rather let the 'Zelda' keep the lead,
and go on slowly overheating her engines. But now, in the last hour and
a half of the race, Hal is up to the same trick. If that has been the
case with the 'Zelda,' and they now, at this late hour, go to any
greater lengths in overheating, they're likely to blow the engines out
of their hull. But we can stand the present speed, with its gradual
overheating, up to the finish time for the race. If both boats keep
going at the speed they're using now, and neither has an accident, we
stand to come in half a mile in the lead."

"Good strategy, that, Jack!" cried Jacob Farnum, his eyes gleaming. "To
let the other fellow take the risk of overheating his machinery all day,
while we do it only in the last part of the race. My boy, I'm hopeful
we may win yet."

"So am I, sir," muttered Benson. "Still, there's the risk that John C.
Rhinds may have something more up his sleeve. We'll know before long,
anyway."

By twenty minutes past four the "Benson" was almost close enough to the
other submarine to throw a biscuit across the intervening space, had
any on board the Pollard craft been inclined that way.