Boy Scouts in a Submarine | Page 5

who ought to be, aw, spanked and put, aw, to bed as soon as the
sun goes down."
Ned did not rise from his chair to escort the Captain to the door. His
face was pale and there was a dangerous light in his eyes.
"It won't be necessary for me to visit you in the morning," he said.
The Captain fixed his glass.
"Fawncy!" he exclaimed.
"Anything you like!" Ned said.

"Fawncy!" repeated the Captain.
"As you please," Ned smiled. "Fawncy anything you like--anything
agreeable, you know."
"And why won't you come to my office in the morning?" asked the
Captain, with a tightening of his thin lips.
"I have decided to withdraw from the enterprise," was the quiet reply.
"I'm out of it."
The boys gathered about Ned with cheers and words of encouragement.
"Go it, old boy!" cried one.
"Don't let him bluff you!" cried another.
"Dad will buy you a submarine!" Frank Shaw put in.
The Captain stood in the middle of the group, gazing in perplexity from
face to face.
"My word!" he said, presently.
"What about it?" asked Jimmie, edging closer.
"Not going?" continued the Captain; "why?"
"I've changed my mind," was the unsatisfactory reply.
"But the submarine is waiting," urged the Captain.
"I shall never go to the bottom in the Diver," Ned replied.
"My word!"
The Captain loitered, as if anxious to reopen the whole matter, but Ned
turned his back and seemed inclined to consider the case closed.
"And so we're not going?" asked Frank.
"Rotten shame!" declared Jack.
"So fades me happy, happy dream!" chanted Jimmie.
The Captain stuck his glass in his eye and moved toward the door, an
expression of satisfaction on his stern face.
No one opened the door for him, and when he opened it for himself, he
found a slender, middle-aged man with a pleasant face and brilliant
eyes confronting him. His supercilious manner vanished instantly, and
the military cap he had already donned came off with a jerk.
"Admiral!" he exclaimed.
The boys gathered about the doorway, all excitement. A real, live
admiral in the Boy Scout clubroom! That was almost too much to
expect.
The admiral saluted and stepped inside the room.
"Pardon me," he said, addressing Ned rather than the Captain, "but I

must confess that I have been doing a discourteous thing. I have been
listening at your door."
"I sincerely hope you heard all that was said," the Captain ventured. "I
have been shamefully insulted here."
"Did you hear all that was said?" asked Nestor.
The Admiral bowed.
"I think so," he said.
"I'm glad of that," Frank said, "for this Captain does not tell the truth."
Captain Moore frowned in the direction of the speaker but said not a
word.
"When I reached the door," the Admiral said, "I heard Captain Moore
saying that the trip was to be made in the Diver, and that he was to
have charge."
"That is the way I understand it," Captain Moore hastened to say.
"And," continued the Admiral, "he said, further, that only one Boy
Scout would be permitted to accompany Mr. Nestor."
"That will be quite enough, judging from the samples we see here," the
Captain observed, with a vicious glance toward Jimmie, whose face
was now set in a broad grin.
"Those are the statements made by Captain Moore," Ned said. "I
refused to accept them."
"Quite right!" said the Admiral.
Captain Moore stuck his glass in his eye again and, saluting, turned
toward the door.
"Wait!" commanded the Admiral.
The angry Captain turned back, a scowl on his face.
"Mr. Nestor," the Admiral continued, "goes in charge of the expedition,
and in the Sea Lion, the submarine he has been experimenting with. He
will be permitted to take three of his companions with him. Any officer
who goes in the Sea Lion will necessarily remain under Mr. Nestor's
orders."
"Then I ask for a transfer," scowled the Captain.
"Granted," answered the Admiral. "You may go now."
Captain Moore lost no time getting out of the door, and then the
Admiral seated himself and motioned Ned to do likewise. The boys
gathered about, but Ned asked them to proceed with their sports, and
only the ex-newsboy remained at the table.

"I'm sorry to say," the Admiral began, "that there are hints of the most
despicable disloyalty and treachery in this matter. I don't like to cast
suspicions on Captain Moore, who really is an expert submarine officer,
but it appears to me that he went beyond his authority in changing the
plans for the cruise."
"He had no authority for changing from the Sea Lion to the Diver?"
asked Ned.
"Not the slightest."
"Or for changing from a steamer ride to China to a long journey on the
submarine?"
"Not at all."