"I tell you, fellows, there was a time, when those
Italians were marching me through the woods, that a little company of
my own sort would have been mighty pleasant. I couldn't be very sure,
at one time last night, of whether you'd ever see me again. But I had
the conviction that, if I tried to put up a useless fight against those
two powerful fellows, there'd be sure to be a new captain aboard the
'Pollard.'"
It was well along in the evening when Mr. Farnum received a telegram
from Washington, informing him that a board of three Naval officers,
provided with proper credentials, would arrive in Dunhaven on the next
morning but one.
The boatbuilder came promptly on board the submarine with the news,
adding, earnestly:
"Don't you boys leave this boat unguarded for an instant until after
the trial trip is over. Mr. Melville will very likely hear about this
and I'm not sure he'd hesitate to disable our boat if he could. At the
rate at which work is going on at his yard his boat may be finished
before our second submarine is ready for demonstration. It would be
greatly to his interest to have a boat to show the Government first,
especially if he now has the plans of our automatic closing device."
It turned out that the suspicion of Mr. Melville receiving the news of
the coming trial trip was wholly correct. The next morning that
capitalist called at Jacob Farnum's office.
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