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ter. She was down to about 150 feet and going deeper when the ene-
my again passed overhead. Flemington headed his ship for cooler wa-
ters.

Instantly Lt. Darwin, having assumed second in command since
the wounding of Mr. Brown, was at his skipper's side, his eyes nar-
rowed and a heated glow on his face.

"Captain, you left those men up there to die. We could have
taken them aboard within a few more minutes."

Whirling around with face stern and eyes cold, Flemington an-
swered severely, "Mr. Darwin, I'm not accustomed to being questioned
in regard to an order of mine, so in the future please remember that, or
I shall have to take disciplinary action against you. We left those men
up there because they are not as important to the whole as we are. I
have a submarine, a crew, and an important mission to carry out in all
urgency. A choice had to be made as to which was more important,
and I made it. One can not allow personal feelings to enter into this,
Mr. Darwin, and until you can think and act as an officer,you will be
a long way off from receiving your first command. A captain can not
feel as the rest may do; his duty is to command and to do what he
knows is best. War is a terrible thing, Lieutenant, and until one be-
comes used to it, is hard to stomach. Possibly those men may be
picked up later by one of our surface craft. Are there any further
questions, Mr. Darwin?"

"No, sir," answered Darwin, a bit taken back but with a steady
gaze.

Flemington looked at the young man and then walked forward to
his quarters. "Possibly," he meditated, "Mr. Darwin will, in time, be
the best of the lot." He went over to his locker and removed from it
a picture. It showed a boy and a man, and the frame was worn and
tarnished from many handlings by its Owner and from its long sea voy-
ages. Flemington stood holding it in his hands for quite some time as
the submarine continued further north.

Something happened after this incident. Lt. Darwin changed
completely. His rating with the crew went up, and there was a no-
ticeable change in his attitude toward the skipper. The most consid-
erable change, the crew agreed, occurred the day the Lieutenant passed
the skipper's quarters and glanced in to see Flemington returning a
picture to his locker. Flemington had seen him, and they had faced
each other. Flemington, still holding the picture, looked directly at
Darwin; and as the Lieutenant gazed at the skipper, a strange, soft ex-
pression seemed to ~nvelop his face. Something had passed between

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