Sam Truax, hanging around the Basin that Sunday forenoon, was called upon.
He gladly responded to the call for help. For four hours he toiled along
in the “Pollard’s” engine room. Much of that time he spent there alone.

The job done, at last, Truax quietly received the thanks of the naval
machinists and went ashore again.

Yet, as he turned and walked toward the main gate of the grounds, there
was a smile on Sam Truax’s face that was little short of diabolical.

“Now, if I can only get the same chance at the ’Farnum’s’ engines!” he
muttered, to himself. “If I can, I think Mr. Jack Benson will find himself
out of favor with his company, for his company will be out of favor with
the Navy Department at Washington!”





CHAPTER XIV: THE “POLLARD” GOES LAME


“The submarine boats when out in the Bay will keep abreast of the
’Hudson,’ two hundred yards off on either beam. The speed will be fourteen
knots when the signal is given for full speed. The general course, after
leaving the mouth of the Bay will be East.”

Such were the instructions called from the rail of the gunboat, through a
megaphone, Monday forenoon.