The Submarine Boys Lightning Cruise | Page 3

that
keg is almost full of cubes of gun-cotton!"
"Whew!" gasped Williamson, beginning to look pallid himself.
"Nor is that all," Hal took up. "Of course, if you had touched off that
gun-cotton in the keg, it would have sent us all through the roof. But
the smaller explosion would have touched off the two tons and a half of
gun-cotton in those Whitehead torpedoes. That would have laid the
whole shipyard flat. In fact, after the torpedoes went up, there wouldn't
have been much left of any part of Dunhaven!"
"Gr--great Hercules!" gasped the machinist, his face now losing every
vestige of color.
Then, after a moment:
"With so much sky-high trouble stored in that shed, you should have a
sign up."
"There is one, on the door," replied Captain Jack. "But the door
happened to be swung open, so that you couldn't see it. Yet I guess
you're the only one in all Dunhaven who didn't know what the shed
contains."
"And how does the little town like the idea!" demanded Williamson,
beginning to smile as his color slowly returned.
"Why, the people can't expect to have very much to say," Jack replied.

"We have a permit to store the explosive, and it's at the request of the
United States Government. You're not afraid to be near so much
rockety stuff are you?"
Williamson gazed at the young skipper reproachfully.
"Now, what have I ever done, Captain, or what have I failed to do, that
should make you think me only forty per cent. good on nerve? Though
I'll admit that my appetite for smoking won't be good when I'm near
this shed. How long is the stuff going to stay here? That is, if some
idiot doesn't play with matches in that shed."
"I expect it will about all be used, after the Navy officer gets on the
scene, and drills us in using torpedoes," Captain Benson answered. "It
isn't intended to keep that sort of stuff stored here all the time."
"Oh! Then I reckon I won't toss my job into the harbor," grinned the
machinist. "How soon are you going to want me?"
"You can go aboard the 'Hastings' at once," replied Skipper Jack. "It
won't do any harm to have the machinery of the new boat looked over
with a most critical eye."
"Any gun-cotton, rack-a-rock wool or dynamite silk stored on board the
new craft?" inquired Williamson, with a look of mock anxiety.
"Nothing more dangerous than gasoline," Captain Jack smiled.
"Oh, I don't mind that stuff,". chuckled the machinist. "I want a smoke.
That's why I'm particular about not going to work near any stuff that
has such a big idea of itself that it swells up every time a match or a
lighted pipe comes around. I'll go aboard now."
With this statement, Williamson strolled down to the beach, untying a
small skiff and pulling himself out to the newer of the pair of very
capable submarine torpedo boats that lay at moorings out in the little
private harbor.

Hal, in the meantime, had quietly swung the shed door to and locked it.
The great white word, "Danger," was once more in plain view.
"What are you going to do now!" asked young Hastings of his chum.
"I reckon I'll spend my time wondering where the Navy man is,"
laughed Captain Jack.
"Let's go up to the office, then. Mr. Farnum may have had some word
in the matter."
As they neared the door of the office building, Eph Somers, who was a
combination of first officer, steward and general utility man on board
the Pollard boats, came in through the gate, joining his friends at once.
Readers of our previous volumes are now well acquainted with these
young men and their friends. In "The Submarine Boys on Duty" was
told how Jack and Hal came to Dunhaven at just the right moment, as it
happened, to edge their way into the employ of Jacob Farnum, the
young shipbuilder, who was then engaged in the construction of the
first of those famous submarine torpedo craft. The first boat was named
the "Pollard," after David Pollard, the inventor of the craft and of its
successors. By the time that the "Pollard" was ready for launching Jack
and Hal had made themselves so valuable to their employer that the
boys were allowed to take to the water with the boat when it left the
stocks. Eph Somers, freckle-faced and sunny aired, was a Dunhaven
boy who had fairly won his way aboard the same craft by his many
sided ability. Yet, under the direction of Messrs. Farnum and Pollard
these youngsters so rapidly acquired the difficult knack of handling
submarine boats that they remained aboard. In the end Jack Benson
became the recognized captain of