"I hope you won't think us mutinous, sir," Darrin returned steadily, "but we don't want any more than our share of whatever air is left on board this craft. We belong to the Navy, too."
From the after end of the cabin came an approving grunt. It was here that the cook and the four seamen had gathered.
With the door open the midshipmen could see what was going on forward, and they watched with intense fascination.
Eph Somers had taken 'the too-thin copper' plate to the work-bench, and had worked hard over it, trying to devise some way of making it fit so that it would perform its function in the motor. Now, he and Hal Hastings struggled and contrived with it. Every time that the pair of submarine boys thought they had the motor possibly ready to run Hal tried to start the motor. Yet he just as often failed to get a single movement from the mechanism.
"I reckon you might about as well give it up," remarked Lieutenant
Jack Benson coolly.
"What's the use of giving up," Eph demanded, "as long as there's any life left in us?"
"I mean," the young lieutenant explained, "that you'd better give up this particular attempt and make a try at something else."
"All right, if you see anything else that we can do," proposed
Eph dryly. "Say, here's a quarter to pay for your idea."
Seemingly as full of mischief as ever, Eph Somers pressed a silver coin into Jack Benson's hand.
But Jack, plainly impatient with such trifling, frowned slightly as he turned and pitched the quarter forward.