"A case of nothing struck, if I had!" uttered Captain Jack, bitterly.

"Oh, yes! You would have struck at our chances of winning out in these
submarine tests," murmured Hal Hastings.

"What do you mean?" demanded Jack, looking startled.

"If you had hit Radwin, in the presence of all those witnesses, you
would have been right in line to be arrested for assault."

"Pooh!" jeered Captain Jack. "A small fine, which I could easily pay."

"But the inconvenience of being locked up, at such a time!" asked Hal
Hastings.

"Mr. Farnum would bail me out, quickly enough."

"I don't believe you see all of the point yet," murmured Hal, earnestly.
"Suppose Radwin swore out a warrant against you for striking him. Then
suppose he paid a court officer to wait and serve the warrant just as
the boats were starting out on some new test cruise? Then you'd go
ashore, and we'd either have to go on without our captain, or else draw
out of the test. Fine business, that, when our first and only business
is to make the Pollard boats the number-one winners in as many tests as
possible!"

"Great Caesar!" exploded Jack, realizing, now, what a narrow escape he
had had from another disaster to their common interests.

"So you be on your guard," Hal went on with his wise counsel. "No