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"You and I appear to be the only two in Dunhaven who don't know what is up," observed Hal Hastings, dryly. "I don't believe Ewald or Biffens know what is on hand," Jack answered. "They've orders to report back in haste. That's all." "Then hadn't we better hurry back to the yard, too?" inquired Hastings. "No; we haven't any orders." "But Mr. Farnum may be wondering where we are."
"Yes, sir; and he'll have to be notified at once, too," replied the young submarine commander. "He's on one of the craft now," replied Mr. Farnum. "Lieutenant Danvers goes with us, but he's a guest, only, and will not have to help in handling the boats. His two men, Ewald and Biffens, will take steering turns. We've a four hundred and eighty mile sail before us, down to Groton Bay."
Ewald and Biffens, the two sailors, were quartered at the hotel at government expense, and were likely to enjoy themselves until orders came. Eph went home for two or three days. Jack and Hal slept on board the "Benson," while Williamson quartered himself aboard the "Hastings," which craft no longer carried any torpedoes.
"It's really up to you, Phoenix," David shouted back, "but how about the the Biffens or Whiffens, or whatever you called them?" "You mean the Gryffins, Gryffons, and Gryffens, my boy? Very well. We shall visit the Gryffins only, however. It is best to leave the others alone."
Farnum, when the entire party, the naval lieutenant included, had landed at the wharf. The two sailors, Ewald and Biffens, had already gone away to places of their own choosing. There were three or four automobiles for hire near the wharf. Two of these Mr. Farnum engaged for his own party.
Ewald and Biffens were there, at one of the tables, but the sailors seemed to be eating in more haste than usual. Then, as they left the dining room, they saluted the young captain and engineer. "Hurrying back to the yard, sir?" asked Ewald. "No," said Jack, quietly. "That's queer. Them's our orders. We're going now, sir," replied Ewald.
At the mouth of the Groton river stands Colfax, a city of more than thirty thousand inhabitants. This was about all that the submarine boys knew of their destination, until they arrived in the bay on the afternoon of the day after they left, Dunhaven. Their run down had been a continuous one. Jack had had Biffens to relieve him at the wheel, while Mr. Farnum had helped Hal in the engine room.
By this time the workmen in the small boat had made fast a towing hawser between the bow of the old scow and the stern towing bitts of the "Hastings." "Use my men all you need to, in casting off, or in boat handling generally," requested Lieutenant Danvers. Jack therefore ordered Ewald and Biffens forward on the upper hull to cast loose from moorings.
Then Biffens, the sailor, took his post by the firing lever, while Ewald stood back to pass the word from the conning tower. This loaded torpedo, like the dummies, had been set to run four hundred yards. Captain Jack, therefore, determined to release the torpedo at a range of three hundred yards.
The two submarine boys, therefore, hastened above, out on the platform deck, and then further forward on the upper hull, until they lay out along the nose of the "Hastings." Danvers reached Ewald's side in the tower, while Biffens waited below, at the lever, for the firing signal. The "Hastings" was now drifting, rather aimlessly, something more than four hundred yards away from the scow.
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