"It is a little different with me, sir," said Frank. I'm an American."

"All the same," said Lord Hastings, "you're a British naval officer, no
matter what your nativity."

"That's true, too, sir," Frank agreed. "I haven't thought of it in just
that way."

"Well," said Lord Hastings, "I shall report then that Captain Templeton
and First Lieutenant Chadwick will go aboard the Plymouth this evening."

"Very well, sir," said Jack.

This is the reason then that Jack and Frank found themselves aboard an
American destroyer in the Irish sea.

Frank Chadwick, as we have seen, was an American. He had been in Italy
with his father when the great war began. He had been shanghaied in Naples
soon after Germany's declaration of war on France. When he came to his
senses he found that his captors were a band of mutinous sailors. Aboard
the vessel he found a second prisoner, who turned out to be a member of
the British secret service.

Frank met Jack Templeton, a British youth, aboard the schooner. Jack came
aboard in a peculiar way.

The schooner, in control of the mutineers, had put into a north African
port for provisions. Now it chanced that the store where the mutineers
sought to buy provisions was conducted by Jack. The lad was absent when