The Submarine Boys and the Middies | Page 9

Victor G. Durham
slowly manoeuvred his craft, while men stood on the
deck below, forward, prepared to heave the bow anchors.
"Go four points over to port, Mr. Trahern," instructed Mr. Mayhew.
"Now, back the engines--steady!"
Jack Benson opened his mouth wide. Then, as he saw the way the
"Hudson" was backing, he suddenly called:
"Slow speed ahead, quick, sir!"
"You said--" began Mr. Mayhew.
Gr-r-r-r! The stern of the gunboat dug its way into a sand ledge, lifting
the stern considerably.
"Slow speed ahead!" rasped Lieutenant Commander Mayhew, sharply.
But the gunboat could not be budged. She was stuck, stern on, fast in
the sand-ledge.
"Benson!" uttered the lieutenant commander, bitterly, "I congratulate
you. You've succeeded in grounding a United States Naval vessel!"

CHAPTER III
: "YOU MAY AS WELL LEAVE THE BRIDGE!"
There was so much of overwhelming censure in the naval officer's tone
that Jack's spirit was stung to the quick.
"It's your mistake, sir," he retorted. "You didn't follow the course I
advised. You swung the ship around to port, and--"
"Silence, now, if you please, while men are trying to get this vessel out
of a scrape a boy got her into," commanded Mr. Mayhem, sternly.
Jack flushed, then bit his tongue. In another moment a pallor had
succeeded the red in his face.
He was blamed for the disaster, and he was not really at fault.
Yet, under the rebuke he had just received, he did not feel it his place to
retort further for the present.
Mr. Mayhew and Mr. Trahern conferred in low tones for a moment or
two.
"You may as well leave the bridge, young man," resumed Mr. Mayhew,
turning upon the submarine boy. "You are not likely to be of any use
here."
As Jack, burning inwardly with indignation, though managing to keep
outwardly calm, descended to the deck below, he caught sight of Hal
Hastings, hovering near in the rowboat. Hal signaled to learn whether
he should put in alongside to take off his chum, but Benson shook his
head.
Over on the "Farnum" the yard's owner and Eph Somers watched
wonderingly. They understood, well enough, that the new, trim-looking
gunboat was in trouble, but they did not know that Jack Benson was
held at fault.

Down between decks the engines of the "Hudson" were toiling hard to
run the craft off out of the sand. Then the machinery stopped. An
engineer officer came up from below. He and Mr. Mayhew walked to
the stern, while a seaman, accompanying them, heaved the lead,
reading the soundings.
"We're stuck good and fast," remarked the engineer officer. "We can't
drive off out of that sand for the reason that the propellers are buried in
the grit. They'll hardly turn at all, and, when they do, they only churn
the sand without driving us off."
"Confound that ignoramus of a boy!" muttered Mr. Mayhew, walking
slowly forward. It was no pleasant situation for the lieutenant
commander. Having run his vessel ashore, he knew himself likely to be
facing a naval board of inquiry.
Hal, finding that the shore boat was not wanted for the present, had
rowed over to the "Farnum's" moorings. Now Jacob Farnum came
alongside in the shore boat.
"May I speak with your watch officer?" he called.
"I am the commanding officer," Mr. Mayhew called down, in the cold,
even, dulled voice of a man in trouble.
"I am Mr. Farnum, owner of the yard. May I come on board?"
"Be glad to have you," Lieutenant Commander Mayhew responded.
So Mr. Farnum went nimbly up over the side.
"May I ask what is the trouble here, sir?" asked the yard's owner.
"The trouble is," replied Mr. Mayhew, "that your enterprising boy pilot
has run us aground--hard, tight and fast!"
Jacob Farnum glanced swiftly at his young captain. Jack shook his head
briefly in dissent. Jacob Farnum, with full confidence in his young man,
at once understood that there was more yet to be learned.

"Come up on the bridge, sir, if you will," requested the commander of
the gunboat, who was a man of too good breeding to wish any dispute
before the men of the crew. "You may come, too, Benson."
Jack followed the others, including the engineer officer of the
"Hudson." Yet Benson was clenching his hands, fighting a desperate
battle to get full command over himself. It was hard--worse than
hard--to be unjustly accused.
Jacob Farnum wished to keep on the pleasantest terms with these
officers of the Navy. At the same time he was man enough to feel
determined that Jack, whether right or wrong, should have a full chance
to defend himself.
"I understand, sir," began Mr. Farnum, "that you attach some blame in
this matter to young Benson?"
"Perhaps he is not to be blamed too much, on
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