THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS
"What way?" inquired Nelson.
"Oh, you can talk?" laughed the other. "I thought you were dumb. I wondered if you were born that way or if it was just shell-shock! Where's your ship?"
Nelson pointed across to the yard. "On the ways over there. I don't have to talk when Masters is around. Have you been at the submarine base long?"
"No, only about two months. If I stay two months more I'll be gray-headed. It's a hard life." But he smiled as he said it, and Nelson took the statement with a grain of salt.
"Have you ever been submerged?" he asked.
"Oh, yes, they send us down every little while. Maybe they're hoping we won't come up again, but we always do. So far," he added as an afterthought and with a grin.
"Do you like it? The submarine service, I mean."
"First rate. It's mighty interesting and the fellows are corkers; officers, too—most of them. I'd like to see some service, though, before the war's over. They say they're likely to keep us up here six or eight months. Think the war will last that long?"
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