"
"It ought to," nodded the builder, "unless the Melvilles, or some of
the experts they're dealing with, are shrewd enough to figure out how
you left the boat and returned to it."
"Would you have figured that out, Mr. Farnum, if I hadn't told you?"
"Probably not, Jack. It's one of the things that are too simple to
guess at easily."
Passers by the Melville yard were now able to hear the hammering of the
riveters daily. It looked as though the new yard must be pushing a
submarine boat to rapid completion.
"There hasn't been a launching, anyway, so I don't believe the Melville
people will be able to do anything to beat our show to-morrow," remarked
Captain Jack, on the night before the day that had been set for the show
before the newspaper men.
Early the next forenoon newspaper correspondents began to arrive in
numbers from half a dozen large cities. As the hotel was monopolized,
by the Melville crowd, Mr. Farnum had engaged other quarters at which
to entertain the men of the press. Some of the newspapers sent women
writers.
None of these visitors were taken direct to the yards. Mr. Farnum and
Mr. Pollard took the journalistic visitors in charge and finally
conveyed them in carriages to the boatyard, arriving at about a quarter
before eleven.
Here Jack, Hal and Eph, looking at their best in their natty uniforms,
were on hand to be presented.
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