The United States Government doesn't appear very anxious to claim its property, does it, sir? asked Captain Jack Benson. The speaker was a boy of sixteen, attired in a uniform much after the pattern commonly worn by yacht captains. The insignia of naval rank were conspicuously absent. "Now, that I've had the good luck to sell the 'Pollard' to the Navy," responded Jacob Farnum, principal owner of the shipbuilding yard, "I'm not disposed to grumble if the Government prefers to store its property here for a while." Yet the young shipbuilder - he was a man in his early thirties, who had inherited this shipbuilding business from his father - allowed his eyes to twinkle in a way that suggested there was something else behind his words. Jack Benson saw that twinkle, but he did not ask questions. If the shipbuilder knew more than he was prepared to tell, it was not for his young captain to ask for information that was not volunteered. The second boy present, also in uniform, Hal Hastings by name, had not spoken in five minutes. That was like Hal.

The United States Government doesn't appear very anxious to claim its property, does it, sir? asked Captain Jack Benson. The speaker was a boy of sixteen, attired in a uniform much after the pattern commonly worn by yacht captains. The insignia of naval rank were conspicuously absent. "Now, that I've had the good luck to sell the 'Pollard' to the Navy," responded Jacob Farnum, principal owner of the shipbuilding yard, "I'm not disposed to grumble if the Government prefers to store its property here for a while." Yet the young shipbuilder - he was a man in his early thirties, who had inherited this shipbuilding business from his father - allowed his eyes to twinkle in a way that suggested there was something else behind his words. Jack Benson saw that twinkle, but he did not ask questions. If the shipbuilder knew more than he was prepared to tell, it was not for his young captain to ask for information that was not volunteered. The second boy present, also in uniform, Hal Hastings by name, had not spoken in five minutes. That was like Hal.