manipulating the searchlight as they sailed through a sea littered with
small wreckage. "That derelict will never menace any skipper afloat,
from now on. Benson, lad, you did a wonderfully keen job."

"You don't think there'd be any risk, then, in sailing back and forth
amid this wreckage?" asked Jack.

"Risk? Not a bit," retorted Danvers. "Why, look over there!" as he
swung the searchlight in a new direction. "There's that submerged
mast-stump, free of the wreck and floating horizontally, now."

Nor was it long before it was clear to trained eyes that the sunken
derelict had been efficiently blown up. That water-logged ghost of a
ship would never again be a source of peril to navigators.

"Now, you can turn your nose for Dunhaven, and with a clear conscience,"
chuckled Lieutenant Danvers. "And, while you're doing that, I'm going
below for another look at the little leak."

Jack ran the "Hastings" the first few miles of her homeward course.
Then he called Eph Somers to the wheel and went below to relax.

It was well on toward eight o'clock when the "Hastings" ran into the
little harbor at Dunhaven and made moorings. The night watchman of the
yard rowed out to meet them, bringing the news that Mr. Farnum, in the
"Benson," had picked up the crew of the "Mary Bond" from two small boats
at sea.

There was a light in the office, so Jack's party went inside. There
they found Jacob Farnum at his desk, putting the finishing touches to