"But for you fellows, to say nothing of this bully good dog of war of yours, things might have gone bad for me," he continued, still somewhat out of breath. "I'm deeply indebted to you chaps and feel I never can repay you."
The boys bowed modestly and asked the old "super" to tell them what it all was about.
A truculent delegation of the so-called "Reds," it appeared, had awaited the superintendent just outside his office, prepared to present their inordinate demands. Led by their more rabid leaders they had presented what was virtually an ultimatum, and finally had become menacing when Brown told them he would have to lay the whole proposition before the management.
"We want an answer right now or we will start something," was their nasty reply. And as the superintendent had turned to make his way back into his offices they had closed in on him. One hot-headed belligerent had started the fireworks with a well-aimed blow, and then followed the riot.
"But now it's all over and I have to thank you boys for your game stand against such odds," he concluded. In turn the superintendent quizzed the boys about where they had been and what they had been doing these last two years. He listened attentively to Jay's modest statement of facts, being particularly interested in the description of how the Americans had laid the mine curtain across the North Sea.
"You both have had experience at deep-sea diving, haven't you?" he asked.
The boys replied affirmatively, Dick adding some details.
"And I reckon you are both after jobs for the summer, aren't you?" he asked again after learning that Jay and Dick expected to return to Brighton in the fall.
"You're right," they replied together.