The Submarine Boys and the Middies | Page 7

dull as ditch-water for an hour, trying to find out something new, and it's all stated in a book printed--ten years ago," he finished, after rapidly consulting the title-page.
Jacob Farnum had been no listener to this conversation. Taking the marine glasses from the conning tower, the shipbuilder was now well forward on the platform deck, scanning what was visible of the steam craft to the southward. At last the yard's owner turned around to say:
"I don't believe you young men can have things ship-shape a second too soon. The craft heading this way has a military mast forward. She must be the 'Hudson.' If there's anything to be done, hustle!"
Jack and Hal sprang below, to scan their respective departments. Five minutes later Grant Andrews hailed from the "Pollard," and Eph rowed over in the shore boat to ferry over the machinists.
Half an hour later Andrews and his men had put in the few needed touches aboard the newer submarine boat. The sun, meanwhile, had gone down, showing the hull of a naval vessel some four miles off the harbor.
Darkness came on quickly, with a clouded sky. As young Benson stepped on deck Grant Andrews followed him.
"All finished here, Grant?" queried the yard's owner.
"Yes, sir. There's mighty little chance to do anything where Hal Hastings has charge of the machinery."
"That's our gunboat out there, I think," went on Mr. Farnum, pointing to where a white masthead light and a red port light were visible, about a mile away.
"Dunhaven must be on the map, all right, if a strange navigating officer knows how to come so straight to the place," laughed Jack Benson.
"Oh, you trust a United States naval officer to find any place he has sailing orders for," returned Jacob Farnum. "I wonder if he'll attempt to come into this harbor?"
"There's safe anchorage, if he wants to do so," replied Captain Jack.
While Somers was busy putting the foreman and the machinists ashore, Mr. Farnum, Jack and Hal remained on the platform deck, watching the approach of the naval vessel, which was now plainly making for Dunhaven.
Suddenly, a broad beam of glaring white light shot over the water, resting across the deck of the "Farnum."
"I guess that fellow knows what he wants to know, now," muttered Benson, blinking after the strong glare had passed.
"There, he has picked up the 'Pollard,' too," announced Hastings. "Now, that commander must feel sure he has sighted the right place."
"There go the signal lights," cried Captain Jack, suddenly. "Hal, hustle below and turn on the electric current for the signaling apparatus."
Then Benson watched as, from the yards high up on the gunboat's signaling mast, colored electric lights glowed forth, twinkling briefly in turn. This is the modern method of signaling by sea at night.
"He wants to know," said Benson, to Mr. Farnum, as he turned, "whether there is safe anchorage for a twelve-hundred-ton gunboat of one hundred and ninety-five feet length."
Reaching the inside of the conning tower at a bound, the young skipper rapidly manipulated his own electric signaling control. There was a low mast on the "Farnum's" platform deck, a mast that could be unstepped almost in an instant when going below surface. So Captain Jack's counter-query beamed out in colors through the night:
"What's your draught?"
"Under present ballast, seventeen-eight," came the answer from the gunboat's signal mast.
"Safe anchorage," Captain Jack signaled back.
"Can you meet us with a pilot?" questioned the on-coming gunboat.
"Yes," Captain Jack responded.
"Do so," came the laconic request.
"That's all, Hal," the young skipper called, through the engine room speaking tube. "Want to row me out and put me aboard the gunboat?"
In another jiffy the two young chums had put off in the boat, Hal at the oars, Jack at the tiller ropes. The gunboat was now lying to, some seven hundred yards off the mouth of the little harbor. Hastings bent lustily to the oars, sending the boat over the rocking water until he was within a hundred yards of the steam craft's bridge.
"Gun boat ahoy!" roared Hal, between his hands. Then, by a slip of the tongue, and wholly innocent of any intentional offense, he bellowed:
"Is that the 'Dad' boat?"
"What's that?" came a sharp retort from the gunboat's bridge. "Don't try to be funny, young man!"
"Beg your pardon, sir. That was a slip of the tongue," Hal replied, meekly, as he colored. "Are you the gunboat 'Hudson?'"
"No; I'm her commanding officer, young man! Who in blazes are you?"
"I'm the goat, it seems," muttered Hastings, under his breath. But, aloud, he replied:
"I have the pilot you requested."
"Then why don't you bring him on board?" came the sharp question. "Did you think I only wanted to look at a pilot?"
"All right, sir. Shall I make fast to your starboard side gangway?" Hal called.
"In a hurry, young man!"
"That's the naval style, I guess," murmured Jack to