“And you’re the captain?”

“Yes; but I can’t undertake to handle Mr. Farnum’s business for him.”

“You’ll let me go aboard the craft to sleep for to-night, anyway?” coaxed
Truax.

“Why, that’s just what I’m not at liberty to do,” replied the young
submarine captain. “No; I couldn’t think of that, in the absence of Mr.
Farnum’s order.”

“But that doesn’t seem hardly fair,” protested Truax. “See here, I have
spent all my money getting here. I haven’t even the price of a lodging
with me, and this isn’t a summer night.”

“Why, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” Benson went on, feeling in one of his
pockets. “Here’s a dollar. That’ll buy you a bed and a breakfast at the
hotel up the street. If you want to get aboard with us in time, you’d
better show up by eight in the morning.”

“But—”

“That’s really all I can do,” Jack Benson hastily assured the fellow. “I’m
not the owner of the boat, and I can’t take any liberties. Oh, wait just a
moment. I’ll see if there’s any chance of Mr. Farnum coming back
to-night.”

Jack knew well enough that there wasn’t any chance of Mr. Farnum
returning, unless possibly at a very late hour with the naval officers,
but the boy had seen the night watchman peering out through the gateway.