The shore boat was waiting,
and again dropped the anchor close to where the boy had come up. Jack
stood in the boat for a few minutes, taking in deep breaths and sunning
his wet skin. Then, for the second time, he dived below the surface.
Five minutes afterward the "Pollard" was at the surface and moving back
to her moorings. Mr. Farnum and Captain Jack returned to the shore.
The boatbuilder's face was glowing with delight.
"You saw our young captain come up while I was with the 'Pollard' down
on the bottom, didn't you?" inquired the yard's owner.
"Yes," admitted Mr. Melville, grudgingly, while Don half scowled, then
turned his head away. "But how is the thing done?"
"That," replied Jacob Farnum, courteously, "at the request of Captain
John Benson, must remain a secret for the present."
"Oh!" said the capitalist, but his tone was ominous.
CHAPTER III
MR. MELVILLE HURLS THE CRASH
It was really a wonderful, even if a very simple, revolution in the
handling of submarine boats that Jack Benson had thought out.
Up to that time many scores of lives had been lost, in different parts
of the world, when the crews of submarine boats had found, for one reason
or another, that they could not raise their craft from the bottom of the
depths. Formerly, when crews found themselves placed in that
predicament, death followed.
Jack's solution was wonderfully simple.
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