boys outwitted them. Through a successful trial trip, and Captain
Jack's ingenious ways of arousing public interest, the government was
forced to buy the "Pollard," as the first of the submarines was named.

In "_The Submarine Boys and the Middies_" was narrated how the submarine
boys secured the prize detail of going to the Naval Academy at Annapolis
as temporary instructors in submarine boating. Many startling adventures,
and some humorous ones, were related in that volume.

Then in "_The Submarine Boys and the Spies_" was shown how the young men
successfully foiled the efforts of spies of foreign governments to learn
the secrets of the Pollard craft.

In "The Submarine Boys' Lightning Cruise" the adventures of these clever,
enterprising boys were carried further. In this book, was told how the
boys were trained in the handling of the actual torpedo of, warfare. The
Pollard boats, "Benson" and "Hastings" were entered in official
government tests in which the submarine craft of several other makes
competed. The desperate lengths to which the nearest rival of the
Pollards went in order to win were told with startling accuracy. The
result of all these tests was that the Pollard company received from
the Navy Department an order for eighteen submarine torpedo boats, the
"Benson" and the "Hastings" being accepted as the first two boats on
that order.

By the time the present narrative opens it was near the first of May.
Over at the shipyard, where facilities had been greatly increased, two
of the submarines had lately been finished, and four more were under way
in long construction sheds. Work on the government's order was being
rushed as fast as could be done while keeping up the Pollard standards,