“Take the lever, Williamson,” directed Eph. “Come along lively, Truax.”
“Humph! Let Williamson go,” grumbled Truax.
“You come along with me, my man!” roared Eph, his face blazing angrily. “Hustle, too, or I'll report you to the captain for disobedience of orders. Then you'll go ashore at express speed. Coming?”
Sam Truax appeared to wage a very brief battle within himself. Then, nodding sulkily, he followed.
“Hustle up, there!” Jack shouted down. “We don't want to drift.”
[pg 071] Jack Benson stood out on the platform deck, holding to the conning tower at the port side. A naval launch had just placed a buoy over an anchor that had been lowered.
“Get forward, you two,” Jack called briskly, “and make the bow cable fast to that buoy.”
Hal still sat at the wheel in the tower. As Eph and Truax crept forward over the arched upper hull of the “Farnum,” Hal sounded the engine room signals and steered until the boat had gotten close enough to make the bow cable fast. Then the stern cable was made fast, with more line, to another buoy.
“A neat hitch, Mr. Benson,” came a voice from the bridge of the “Hudson,” which lay a short distance away. Jack, looking up, saw Lieutenant Commander Mayhew leaning over the bridge rail.
“Thank you, sir,” Jack acknowledged, saluting the naval officer.