“Did you wish to see me?” the lieutenant asked, as Jerry and his chums looked in rather a fixed manner at the young man.

“Yes, sir,” replied the tall lad. “We wish to find out where Captain Ware may be found. We’re in his company, and——”

“Oh, yes. You were asking me that when I had to give instructions to these sentinels. If you’ll come with me I’ll take you to Captain Ware.”

He turned to go, but, before leaving, he looked again at the marine corps sentinels, one of whom stood on either side of the closed door of the mysterious cabin—at least it was mysterious to the three Motor Boys.

“Don’t forget!” the lieutenant cautioned. “No one is to enter that cabin—not even I—without a written order from Captain Munson.”

“Yes, sir,” was the answer in chorus, and, acknowledging the salutes of the sentries, the lieutenant[77] strode away, followed by Ned, Bob, and Jerry.

“Has there been a mutiny, sir, or anything like that?” asked Ned of the lieutenant, at the same time nudging his two comrades to indicate that he was taking a chance in thus putting a question to a superior officer on a subject that might well be a forbidden one.

“A mutiny? What makes you think that?” was the quick retort.

“Oh, on account of what happened—the blowing up of the boiler, and all that. I thought maybe some one had been found planting a bomb in the engine room, sir, and——”

“You must have been doing quite a bit of thinking,” was the smiling comment of the young officer. “Be careful you don’t do too much. Or, at least, if you do, keep your thoughts to yourself.”

“Yes, sir,” assented Ned, and he knew then that his questions were not to be answered.

“Who told you the boiler had been blown up, and what made you think a bomb had been placed in the engine room?” asked the lieutenant.

“Oh, we just imagined so, that’s all, sir,” Ned replied.

“It sounded like an explosion, sir,” said Jerry.

“Well, it was,” and the lieutenant’s answer was a bit snappy. “One of the boilers blew out a main feed steam pipe. It takes an explosion to do that,[78] or rather, the act is explosive in itself. But that doesn’t say it was a bomb.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t,” commented Bob.

“I didn’t say it wasn’t!” came quickly from the young officer. “All I said was that a steam boiler could blow up without a bomb having caused it. I don’t know that any one knows exactly what caused the accident to the ship. We are still investigating, and the less talk about it the better—especially when no facts are known. So I advise you young gentlemen not to do too much talking.”

“All right, sir,” murmured Ned. “But we were just thinking—about that cabin, you know—we were just thinking——”

“But keep your thoughts to yourselves—for the time being,” interrupted the lieutenant. “You may hear all about it later, and again you may not.”

They found Captain Ware in a small cabin which he had to share with fellow officers, so crowded were accommodations aboard the Sherman. The captain greeted the boys cordially.

“Now don’t tell me,” he began with a smile, “that you have come to complain of the sleeping quarters, the food, or the lack of exercise. I know all that already—a dozen times over,” and he motioned to a pile of papers on his bed.

“Oh, we haven’t come to complain, sir,” voiced Ned. “But we have something we’d like to tell[79] you, and it may have to do with the accident that disabled the ship.”

“Well, that’s interesting, to say the least,” commented the captain. “Come in, boys. There isn’t a great deal of room, but if you stand up while you’re talking I guess we can squeeze you all in. These cabins were made for only two.”

Thereupon the trio entered and, after a few false starts and a friendly rivalry as to who should open the narrative, the story was finally told. It began with the encounter in the Brest restauran............