The Submarine Boys and the Middies Part 14

"I know I look pretty tough," Jack admitted, shamefacedly. "But I belong aboard the 'Farnum,' one of the submarines that arrived last night. And I'm due there at this minute. Please don't delay me."

"All right," replied the sentry, after surveying the boy from head to foot once more. Then he added, in a lower tone, with just the suspicion of a grin showing at the corners of his mouth:

"Say, friend, for a stranger, you must have had a high old frolic in the town last night."

Jack frowned. The sentry's grin broadened a bit. As he did not offer to detain the boy longer, Benson hurried on along one of the walks. He took as short a course as he could making straight for the Basin, where he made out the "Hudson" and the two submarines.

"Hey! There's the captain!" shouted Eph, wonderingly, for Somers's eyes were sharp at all times.

Out of the conning tower sprang Hal Hastings, looking eagerly in the direction in which Eph Somers pointed:

"Eh?" muttered another person, lounging near the rail of the gunboat. Then Lieutenant Commander Mayhew, after a keen, wholly disapproving look at the hard-looking figure of a young man at the landing, started, as he muttered:

"Benson, by all that's horrible! How did he come to be in that fearful shape? He must have been in one of the worst resorts within miles of Annapolis!"

"This isn't the first time the young man has come back the worse for wear," the lieutenant commander continued, under his breath. "His friends were loyal enough to him, that time. I wonder if they can be, to-day?"

One of the sh.o.r.e boats, waiting about in the Basin, put young Benson aboard the "Farnum" as soon as he explained who he was. Hal and Eph stood awaiting the coming of their young commander, their faces full of concern and anxiety. Both gripped Jack's hand as soon as he gained the platform deck of the submarine.

"Come below," whispered Hal. "We'll talk there. You need a bath and to get into a uniform as quickly as you can."

This need Jack Benson proceeded to realize without an instant's delay.

While he washed himself off, in one of the staterooms aft, he talked through the door, which had been left ajar. He continued his story while he dressed.

"We were fearfully anxious this morning," Hal confessed. "I went to sleep last night, and didn't know of your absence until this morning. Then Eph and I decided to come on down to the boat to see if you were here. We were just planning to send quiet word to the Annapolis police when Eph spotted you coming."

"And Truax?" inquired Captain Jack.

"He and Williamson are forward in the engine-room, now, at breakfast."

"Oh, well, Truax wouldn't know anything about the sc.r.a.pe, anyway,"

returned Jack. "His name was learned and used-that's all."

"Are you going to try to find that place, catch the mulatto and force the return of your money?" demanded Eph Somers.

"I've got to think that over," muttered Jack, as he drew on a spick-and-span uniform blouse. "I don't know whether there'll be any use in trying to find that mulatto. I haven't the least idea where his place is. Even if I found it, it's ten to one I wouldn't find the fellow there."

"'Farnum,' ahoy!" roared a voice alongside, the voice coming down through the open conning tower.

Eph ran to answer. When he returned, he announced:

"Compliments of Lieutenant Commander Mayhew, and will Mr. Benson wait on the lieutenant commander on board the parent boat?"

"I will," a.s.sented Jack, with a wry face, "and here's where I have to do some tall but truthful explaining to a man who isn't in the least likely to believe a word I say. I can guess what Mr. Mayhew is thinking, and is going to keep on thinking!"

CHAPTER IX: TRUAX GIVES A HINT

It was a tailor-made, clean, crisp and new-looking young submarine commander who stepped into the naval cutter alongside.

Jack Benson looked as natty as a young man could look, and his uniform was that of a naval officer, save for the absence of the insignia of rank.

Up the side gangway of the gunboat Jack mounted, carrying himself in the best naval style. On deck stood a sentry, an orderly waiting beside him.

"Lieutenant Commander Mayhew will see you in his cabin, sir," announced the orderly. "I will show you the way, sir."

Mr. Mayhew was seated before a desk in his cabin when the orderly piloted the submarine boy in. The naval officer did not rise, nor did he ask the boy to take a seat. Jack Benson was very well aware that he stood in Mr.

Mayhew's presence in the light of a culprit.

"Mr. Benson," began Mr. Mayhew, eyeing him closely, "you are not in the naval service, and are not therefore amenable to its discipline. At the same time, however, your employers have furnished you to act, in some respects, as a civilian instructor in submarine boating before the cadets.

While you are here on that duty it is to be expected, therefore, that you will conform generally to the rules of conduct as laid down at the Naval Academy."

"Yes, sir," replied Jack.

"As I am at present in charge of the submarine purchased by the United States from your company, and at least in nominal charge of the 'Farnum,'

as well, I am, in a measure, to be looked upon, for the present, as your commanding officer."

"Yes, sir," a.s.sented the boy.

"You came aboard your craft, this morning, in a very questionable looking condition."

"Yes, sir."

Jack Benson's composure was perfect. His sense of discipline was also exact. He did not propose to offer any explanations until such were asked of him.

"Have you anything to say, Mr. Benson, as to that condition, and how you came to be in it?"

"Shall I explain it to you, sir?"

"I shall be glad to hear your explanation."

Thereupon, the submarine boy plunged into a concise description of what had happened to him the night before. The lieutenant commander did not once interrupt him, but, when Jack had finished, Mr. Mayhew observed:

"That is a very remarkable story, Mr. Benson. Most remarkable."

"Yes, sir, it is. May I ask if you doubt my story?"

Jack looked straight into the officer's eyes as he put the question bluntly. An officer of the Army or of the Navy _must not_ answer a question untruthfully. Neither, as a rule, may he make an evasive answer.

So the lieutenant commander thought a moment, before he replied:

"I don't feel that I know you well enough, Mr. Benson, to express an opinion that might be wholly fair to you. The most I can say, now, is that I very sincerely hope such a thing will not happen again during your stay at the Naval Academy."

"It won't, sir," promised Jack Benson, "if I have hereafter the amount of good judgment that I ought to be expected to possess."