all the questions you like. Maybe you're paid to ask questions, but I'm
paid to hold my mouth shut."

It went a good deal against the submarine boy's grain to be so brusque
with an inquisitive stranger, but there seemed to be no other defense.

"Oh, well, if you're ashamed of your business--" retorted the
fisherman, falling into a sullen silence.

This turn of affairs just suited Benson. He compressed his lips and sat
back, looking out across the bay at the tug, which was at work some
three miles away.

"Can you put on a little more speed?" inquired Jack.

"No," answered the fisherman, sulkily. "Doin' all the gait she'll
kick now."

So Jack possessed his soul in patience until the wheezy little launch
had covered the whole distance.

While still some two hundred yards off Jack caught sight of Major
Woodruff coming out of the after cabin of the tug.

"Ahoy, Major!" yelled the submarine boy, holding his hands to his lips.
"Perhaps you'd better stop work until I've reported."

Then the launch ran in alongside, and Jack stepped up to the deck of
the tug, holding tightly to the loot he had taken from Millard.