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.
"This isn't a twenty-five-cent proposition," Benson remarked.
"In fact, all the money on earth won't save us this time!"
CHAPTER XI
A QUARTER'S WORTH OF HOPE
"Until some one can think of something else, I'm going to keep
on trying the hopeless thing and endeavoring to make this old,
thin plate work," declared Hal Hastings, who was still bent over
the motor, studying it intently.
Benson had turned back to examine the work, after tossing the
coin away, but just as suddenly he glanced forward again.
At the extreme forward end of the engine room of the "Dodger"
was another bench.
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