to do it."

"Authority? Then what's the matter with the people at the Fort?"
demanded Eph.

"Their authority runs only on the land. Besides, by the time we got
through the red tape, and got started, any smart smack, in a good wind,
would be forty miles the other side of the horizon."

"Are you going to take this long drive, then?" asked Hal Hastings,
rather dubiously.

"Yes," declared Jack Benson, promptly. "Hal, old fellow, any trail is
best where it's freshest."

"I reckon you can git in, now, gents, if ye want," called the driver.

Seated in the cab the submarine boys set out to meet whatever might
be before them in Cobtown. Had they possessed the gift of prophecy--

However, none of us possess that!




CHAPTER IX

JACK PLAYS WITH A VOLCANO