The Submarine Boys for the Flag | Page 5

to
drill with your navy, and be prepared to fight in your navy if war
comes?"
"Ach, yes! of course," replied Radberg. "Now, we are beginning to
understand one another."
"Professor," interrupted Captain Jack Benson, "we've had enough of
joking."
"Joking? I assure you--"
"Professor," once more broke in the submarine boy, "I wouldn't sell out
my country's flag for all the money you ever saw!"
For a few moments the Professor's face was a study in consternation.
Then he broke forth, angrily:
"Ach! You are a fool!"
"I guess so," nodded Jack, without resentment. "That's just the kind of
fools we Americans are generally."
Herr Radberg was a good enough reader of human faces to realize that,
at all events, there was no use in continuing the conversation at present.

"Very good," he growled. "You can go. I shall see your friends,
instead."
"When you get through with 'em you'll think they're idiots," grinned
Captain Jack Benson.
Herr Radberg wasn't a fool. Neither was he a rascal, expert in offering
bribes. Brought up within the wall's of a German university, he would
have been willing to lay down his life instantly for the good of the
Fatherland. Yet he couldn't understand that men of other nations could
be just as devoted to their own countries. From Herr Professor
Radberg's point of view Germany was the only country in the world
that was fitted to inspire a real and deep sense of patriotism.
"No harm done, Professor," said Jack, moving toward the door, and
turning the key to unlock it. "I'm sorry you had all the trouble and
expense of coming to Dunhaven on a useless errand. Good-bye!"
"Ach! You may go, but you will come back," scowled the other. "If not,
your comrades will, I hope, prove to be young men of better sense and
judgment."
"Oh, they'll listen to you," smiled Jack. "Good-bye!"
"I shall have two of you, anyway," were Radberg's last words before
the door of the outer room closed and Jack's footsteps sounded in the
corridor.
CHAPTER II
"FRENCH SPOKEN HERE"
"Well, what do you think of that?"
It was Eph Somers who put the question, and the time was some fifteen
minutes later.
Captain Jack had met his two comrades up on the main street of the

village. He had told them, with a good deal of amusement, of his late
talk with the German.
Hal Hastings didn't say a word, but his eyes twinkled.
"I wouldn't have minded," laughed Jack, "but it was the Professor's
cock-sureness that I was to be Germany's oyster."
"Is he an old man?" asked Hal.
"Not very," Jack answered. "Perhaps not old enough to know better.
Anyway, if I were going to a foreign government, Germany would be
about the last country. Germany is our rival in building a large navy.
About every other month the experts in Germany sit down to figure
whether they are anything ahead of us in the tonnage of warships, and,
if so, whether there is any danger of our catching up with them. Now,
unless the Germans have a notion that they may need, to fight us one of
these days--"
"Oh, I don't believe anything of that sort," broke in Hal, shaking his
head. "I don't believe any country in the world is aching to pick a
quarrel with us."
"Not while the United States pocket-book is such a fat one, and so well
built for paying war expenses," grinned Eph. Then his look became
more solemn, as he added:
"But we don't want ever to get into a naval condition where it will be
easy for some other country to snatch that fat pocket-book out of our
hands."
"Let's go along, fellows. Drowning and confusion to all possible foes
afloat," proposed Hal, the one who could never see "war" on the
horizon. "After a winter on hot sodas, it'll be a relief to know that the
druggist put in icecream soda to-day."
So the three boys turned and made their way to the drugstore. While
they were exploring with spoons the bottoms of their glasses, the street

door opened. Herr Professor Radberg looked in, then came in, beaming
condescendingly on the young men.
"Ach! You young men are just the ones I wish to see," he exclaimed,
resting one hand on Eph's shoulder, the other on Hal's.
"Lots of folks will pay for that privilege," declared Eph, solemnly.
"Yes? Well, I will pay, too--you shall see. I shall look for you at the
hotel, in just one hour. One hour--remember."
"Have you a telescope?" inquired Eph, calmly.
"A telescope. Eh?" inquired the German. "What for?"
"You might need it in looking for us," Eph replied.
"Then, in one hour, I shall see you--at the hotel!"
"You'll be lucky, if you do," grinned Eph.