Benson. "You're going with us to-day, aren't you, Mr. Farnum?"

"Don't you believe, for a moment," retorted the shipbuilder, "that I'd
let anything keep me from the first torpedo practice on one of our
boats. And I'm almost ashamed of Dave Pollard. That fellow, instead
of being here, is away somewhere in hiding, dreaming about a new style
of clutch for the after end of the torpedo tube. Oh, yes, I'll be with
you!"

"Hallo!" muttered Eph, stepping to a window that looked out on the yard
near the street gate. "What's this coming? A hundred people, at least,
and they look like a mob!"

There was, in truth, a goodly inpouring of people, and fully a dozen of
these new-corners seemed to be trying to talk at the same time.




CHAPTER II

TORPEDO PRACTICE AT LAST


"Perhaps they're coming to make a row about having so much gun-cotton
stored close to the village," hinted Lieutenant Danvers.

The same thought was in Captain Jack Benson's mind. However, they
were not long to be kept in doubt, for Jacob Farnum had moved hastily
to the outer door.