While Jacob Farnum is reading the despatch carefully, for a better
understanding, let us speak for a moment of Captain Jack Benson and his
youthful comrades and chums.

Readers of the first volume in this series, “The Submarine Boys on Duty,”
remember how Jack Benson and Hal Hastings strayed into the little seaport
town of Dunhaven one hot summer day, and how they learned that it was here
that the then unknown but much-talked-about Pollard submarine was being
built. Both Jack and Hal had been well trained in machine shops; they had
spent much time aboard salt water power craft, and so felt a wild desire
to work at the Farnum yard, and to make a study of submarine craft in
general.

How they succeeded in getting their start in the Farnum yard, every reader
of the preceding volumes knows; how, too, Eph Somers, a native of
Dunhaven, managed to “cheek” his way aboard the craft after she had been
launched, and how he had always since managed to remain there.

Our same older readers will remember the thrilling experiences of this
boyish trio during the early trials of the new submarine torpedo boat,
both above and below the surface. These readers will remember, also, for
instance, the great prank played by the boys on the watch officer of one
of the stateliest battleships of the Navy.

Readers of the second volume, “The Submarine Boys’ Trial Trip,” will
recall, among other things, the desperate efforts made by George Melville,
the capitalist, aided by the latter’s disagreeable son, Don, to acquire
stealthy control of the submarine building company, and their efforts to
oust Jack, Hal and Eph from their much-prized employment. These readers