The Submarine Boys on Duty | Page 7

then
hurried to their own room, though not to retire at once.
"Well!" demanded Jack Benson, his face radiant, as he thought of their
"fighting chance."
"It was the way you put the whole matter to Pollard," replied Hal

Hastings. "Jack, you're a wonder with your tongue. I believe you could
talk a hole through a thick board fence."
"We've got our chance, anyway. And, oh, Hal! I believe it's going to be
our real chance in life!"
"You'll soon be as wild about the 'Pollard' as the inventor himself,"
laughed Hastings, good-naturedly.
"It isn't going to be just the one boat, Hal," urged his chum, seriously.
"It's the whole big problem of submarine warfare. It's going to be the
warfare of the future, old chum! And, starting this early, we may
become Pollard's real experts--his leading men when he's famous,
successful and rich! We may even become his partners, through getting
up improvements on his ideas. Hal, boy, we may even put through our
own design of submarine boat one of these days."
"It'll be huge fun, anyway, if we can get a chance to cruise on a
submarine boat-under water and all!" glowed young Hastings. "Say,
there must be a wonderful thrill to going down deep in the ocean."
Thus they talked for another hour. It was very late when the two turned
in, nor did they go to sleep at once. Yet, when the half-past six call
came in the morning, both boys turned out in a jiffy. Excitement took
the place of rest with them. They breakfasted with appetite. Shortly
after half-past seven, though the yard was so near, Jack and Hal set out
for their first day's work at boat building.
The gate was open, though the yard, as they stepped inside, had a
deserted look. The partly finished hulls of two schooners lay on the
ways down by the water front. There were half a dozen sloops in
various stages of completion. There were two houses, close to the
water's edge in which, as the boys afterwards learned, motor boats were
built. But it was a rough shed, more than twenty feet high, and at least
one hundred and twenty feet long, running down to the shore, that
instantly caught Jack Benson's glance.
"There's where they must be putting the 'Pollard' in shape," he cried,

eagerly, as he pointed. Both youngsters hurried toward that shed. As
they reached it the inventor came into sight around the end. He was
hollow-eyed, though alert; he looked even more worried than he had
looked the night before.
"Ah, good morning, boys," was his greeting. "Early on hand, I see."
"When a fellow's whole heart is set on a thing, he isn't likely to lie abed
until the last moment, is he, Mr. Pollard?" inquired Benson.
That speech impressed the inventor most favorably. He could
appreciate enthusiasm.
"Come inside, and I'll show you something," he said, producing a key
and leading the way to a door in the side of the shed.
Through the long, high windows of the shed an abundance of light fell.
But Jack, once inside the door, halted, looking with lips parted and eyes
wide open.
"O-o-o-oh!" he murmured.
"What is it?" inquired the inventor, curiously.
"The very, wonder of the thing," replied Benson, frankly, looking over
the whole length of the "Pollard" as she lay propped up on the sturdy
ways.
Nor did that simple speech make the inventor think any less of the boy.
Though Hal Hastings remained silent for some time, his fascinated
gaze rested steadily on the strange-looking outlines of the cigar-shaped
bull of the boat.
The outer hull was of steel plates, carefully riveted into place. The
entire length of the boat was about one hundred and ten feet, which in
point of size placed her just about in the class of boats of this type
which are being constructed to-day.
Near the center of the boat, on the upper side, was the conning tower,

about nine feet in outside diameter, and extending some four feet above
the sloping deck of the craft. Around the conning tower extended a flat,
circular "platform" deck.
At the bow of the boat the torpedo tube projected a short distance. At
the stern the rudder was in place, and all was in readiness for placing
the propeller shaft and the propeller itself. On the floor of the shed, near
the middle of this strange, dangerous boat, lay miscellaneous small
pieces of machinery and fittings.
At the starboard side of the boat stood a ladder that ascended to the
platform deck. In the top of the conning tower a man-hole cover stood
propped up. It was through this opening that the workmen entered or
left the boat.
From outside the shed several wires ran in. In dark