"So that's the kind of people they are?" Jacob Farnum smiled softly as Reporter Hennessy finished repeating the information volunteered by Mr.

Graham, the Washington correspondent.

To this Hal had contributed the little he was able to tell of Mlle.

Nadiboff's conduct.

"You will have to look to your young captain more closely after this,"

wound up Hennessy.

"Why?" questioned the shipbuilder.

"Even at this moment he is away in the company of that clever woman."

"Oh, he won't be cross with her," retorted Farnum, with an easy smile.

"Jack Benson is always courteous with women."

"But aren't you afraid your young captain will have his head turned by her?" pressed the reporter.

"Who? Jack?" laughed Mr. Farnum. "Say, it's very plain you don't know Jack Benson."

The shipbuilder, two of the submarine boys and the reporter were seated by themselves at one end of the Hotel Clayton's big front veranda.

"Aren't you at all uneasy?" asked Hennessy.

"If I am," proposed the shipbuilder, "I'm going to cure my mental unrest with luncheon. Won't you join us, Mr. Hennessy?"

If appet.i.te were any guide, none of the submarine people felt the slightest uneasiness as to information that the sprightly Mlle. Nadiboff might be able to coax from Captain Jack while on that auto drive.

By the time that the quartette came out again, however, Farnum began to look bothered.

"After two," he declared, "and Jack not here. Now, at three o'clock, I've agreed to take out a party of naval officers from the gunboat. We want to show those Navy fellows some of our prettiest work in the 'Benson.'"

"It looks as though your young captain is finding his companion so pleasant that he forgets to look frequently at his watch," suggested the reporter, slyly.

"Jack Benson doesn't know anything about the three o'clock appointment,"

replied Mr. Farnum.

"If he isn't here in season," put in quiet Hal, "it won't cause us any real trouble, anyway. Those of us who will be on hand can manage the boat through any ordinary trial or trip."

Eph was very silent--for him. After fifteen more minutes had gone by young Somers sauntered out into the road, where he could command a long view in the direction in which he would naturally look for Jack's approach in Mlle. Nadiboff's car.

After some ten minutes Eph Somers came running up the roadway.

"It's all right," he announced. "The car is coming."

In hardly a minute more the car rolled up to the veranda, and stopped.

Mlle. Nadiboff, catching sight of the little party, smiled and nodded graciously as she stepped to the veranda.

"Where's Captain Benson?" inquired Hal, starting toward her.

"Captain Benson?" repeated Mlle. Nadiboff, looking a trifle surprised.

"Hasn't he returned?"

"Not yet," Hal Hastings answered her, his gaze fixed steadily on the young woman's face. "How could he return ahead of your car, Mademoiselle?"

"Why, he left me more than half an hour ago, and within two miles of here," replied the young woman, easily. "I proposed going to another hotel, a few miles from here, for luncheon. So he asked me to put him down, saying he would walk in. That was not more than two miles from here, was it, Gaston?"

"Much less than two miles," replied the chauffeur.

"And he hasn't returned?" queried Mlle. Nadiboff, looking mildly curious.

"He has not yet come," Hal replied.

"Then he must be a slow walker, or--but will you take my car and go back to look for him? Will take you to the spot where your young captain left us on foot?"

Hal Hastings's first impulse was to accept the offer of the car. Yet Mlle. Nadiboff's acting was so perfect, her air so unconcerned save for mild curiosity, that any suspicion Hal may have felt for a second or two was quickly banished.

"No, though I thank you, Mademoiselle," he replied. "Captain Benson will doubtless be here before we could make a fair start."

Nodding pleasantly, the Russian vanished through the ladies' entrance.

Hal went back to his companions.

"Say," broke in Eph, presently, "if she left Jack to go several miles for her luncheon, she got it and returned mighty quick."

"Probably used a woman's privilege, and changed her mind about driving to that other hotel," suggested Mr. Farnum.

For some minutes more the party waited, then went down into the road, but there was no sign of Jack coming along.

"Mighty strange!" muttered Hal, uneasily. "Well, we've got to aboard, now," announced Jacob Farnum, after glancing at his watch. "Sorry we can't very well invite you to go with us, Mr. Hennessy."

"I shall see you, if you come ash.o.r.e in the evening," replied the reporter. "In the meantime I shall be about the hotel. If I see Benson, I'll tell him where you all are."

Being well provided with cigars, Reporter Hennessy did not quit the veranda after he had once taken his seat there. So it happened that he noted the arrival of M. Lemaire, alone in a runabout, just about an hour after the time when Mlle. Nadiboff had returned.

Jack Benson, however, did not put in an appearance.

The submarine torpedo boat, with its naval party aboard, sailed out of the harbor, returning just before dark.

Then, as soon as could be, Messrs. Farnum and Pollard and Hal and Eph came ash.o.r.e, heading straight for the hotel.

"Your young captain hasn't succeeded in walking the two miles' distance to this hotel," announced Mr. Hennessy, who was waiting for them.

"Confound it, I don't like the looks of this," muttered Farnum, uneasily.

"It looks as though something had been done to Benson."

"Will you notify the police?" questioned the reporter.

"I don't believe that would be wise. At any rate, not quite yet,"