After seeing this done, the two submarine boys left for the platform deck,
for the engine room was both hot and crowded.

“How long is it going to take you, Mr. Hastings?” asked the naval officer
in command of the “Pollard.”

“Half an hour to get the parts cool enough to examine, but I can’t say,
sir, how long the examination and repairs will take.”

So the officer in command signaled what proved to be vague and
unsatisfactory information to Lieutenant Commander Mayhew.

“This is a bad time to have this sort of thing happen,” observed the naval
officer in charge.

“A mighty bad time, sir,” Jack murmured.

“And the engines of the ’Pollard’ were supposed to be in first-class
condition.”

“They _were_ in A-1 condition, when the boat was turned over to the Navy,”
Jack responded.

“Do you imagine, then, Mr. Benson, that some of the naval machinists have
been careless or incompetent?”

“Why, that would be a wild guess to make, sir, when one remembers what
high rank your naval machinists take in their work,” Jack Benson replied.

“And this boat was sold to the Navy with the strongest guarantee for the