The Submarine Boys and the Middies | Page 6

Jacob Farnum.
"You don't think I'm doing this just for fun, do you, sir?" asked Captain
Jack, with a smile.
"No; I know you generally have an object when you do anything
unusual," responded the shipbuilder, good-humoredly.
"You know, of course, sir, that noises sound with a good deal of
exaggeration when you hear them under water?"
"Yes; of course."
"You also know that all three of us have been practicing at telegraphy a
good deal during the past few weeks, because every man who follows
the sea ought to know how to send and receive wireless messages at
need."
"Yes; I know that, Benson."
"Well, sir, I guess that the lead has been hitting the top of the 'Farnum's'
hull, and I've been tapping out the signal--"
"The signal, 'Come up--rush!'" broke in Hal, with an odd smile.
"Right-o," nodded Jack Benson.

"How on earth did you know what the signal was, Hastings?"
demanded Mr. Farnum.
"Why, sir, I've been sitting so that I could see Jack's arm. I've been
reading, from the motions of his right arm, the dots and dashes of the
Morse telegraph alphabet."
"You youngsters certainly get me, for the things you think of," laughed
the shipyard's owner.
"And the 'Farnum,' or whatever it is, is coming up," called Captain Jack,
suddenly. "I just felt my lead slide down over the top of her hull.
Hard-a-starboard, Hal, and row hard," shouted young Benson,
breathlessly.
Though Hastings obeyed immediately he was barely an instant too soon.
To his dismay, Mr. Farnum saw something dark, unwieldy, rising
through the water. It appeared to be coming up fairly under the stern of
the shore boat, threatening to overturn the little craft and plunge them
all into the icy water.
Hal shot just out of the danger zone, though. Then a round little tower
bobbed up out of the water. Immediately afterward the upper third of a
long, cigar-shaped craft came up into view, water rolling from her
dripping sides, which glistened brightly as the sun came out briefly
from behind a fall cloud.
In the conning tower, through the thick plate glass, the three people in
the shore boat made out the carroty-topped head and freckled,
good-humored, honest, homely face of Eph Somers. The boat lay on
the water, under no headway, drifting slightly with the wind-driven
ripples. Then Eph raised the man-hole cover of the top of the conning
tower, thrusting out his head to hail them.
"Hey, you landsmen, do you know a buoy from an umbrella?"
"Do you know the difference between a Sunday-school text and petty
larceny?" retorted Jack Benson, sternly. "What do you mean by taking

the submarine without leave?"
"I've been experimenting--flirting with science," responded Eph, loftily.
"Say, if you landsmen know a buoy from a banana, get down to the
bow moorings of this steel mermaid, and I'll pass you the bow cable.
It's a heap easier to lead this submarine horse out of the stall,
single-handed, than it is to take him back and tie him."
Hal rowed easily to the buoy, while Eph, returning to the steering
wheel and the tower controls, ran the "Farnum," with just bare headway,
up to where he could toss the bow cable to those waiting in the boat. A
few moments later the stern cable, also, was made fast, in such a way as
to allow a moderate swing to the bulky steel craft.
"Now, you can take me ashore, if you feel like it," proposed Eph,
standing on the platform deck.
"Not quite yet," returned Skipper Jack, though the small boat lay
alongside. "We've got some inspecting to do. But how did you get on
board in the first place?"
"Why, the night watchman was in the yard for a few minutes, and I got
him to put me on board. I figured I could hail somebody else when I
was ready to go on shore."
"But what on earth made you do such a thing?" demanded Captain Jack,
in a low tone. "It's really more than you had a right to do, Eph, without
getting Mr. Farnum's permission."
"Why, I've known you to take the 'Pollard' and try something when Mr.
Farnum wasn't about," retorted Somers, looking surprised.
"You never knew me to do it when I could ask permission, although, as
captain, I have the right to handle the boat. But that leave doesn't
extend to all the rest, Eph. What were you doing down there, anyway?"
"Why, I came on board, and left the manhole open for ten minutes,"
answered Somers. "Then I found the cabin thermometer standing at 49

degrees. I wondered how much warmth could be gained by going
below the surface. I had been down an hour and five minutes when you
began to signal with that sledge-hammer--"
"Sounding-lead,"