CHAPTER IV: MR. FARNUM OFFERS ANOTHER GUESS


Close at hand there was a loose board in the fence. Through this Sam Truax
thrust his head, peering up and down the street. Not another soul was in
sight.

With a chuckle Truax stepped through the hole in the fence. Swiftly he
gathered up the young submarine captain, bearing him through the aperture
and dropping him on the ground behind the fence. At the same time he took
with him the small bag of sand.

“Knocked you out, but I don’t believe you’ll be unconscious long,” mused
Truax, standing over his young victim, regarding him critically. “There
wasn’t steam enough in the blow to hurt you for long. You’re sturdy,
following the sea all the time, as you do.”

With a thoughtful air Sam Truax drew a small bottle from his pocket,
sprinkling some of the contents over Jack’s uniform coat. Immediately the
nauseating smell of liquor rose on the air.

“Now, if someone finds you before you come to, you’ll look like a fellow
that has been drinking and fighting,” muttered Truax under his breath. “If
you come to and get back to the yard without help, you’ll walk unsteadily
and have that smell about your clothes. Usually, it needs only a breath of
suspicion to turn folks against a boy!”