The fight lasted not more than a minute. Two bronzed navy veterans, an ex-soldier with a fine record and a good old dog who had sense enough to stick with his friends against any odds--they were more than a match for a bunch of rioting strikers. Back fell the crowd before the fierce onslaught, scattering right and left, but not quick enough to evade the mounted shipyard police who came up on the gallop, swinging riot clubs with telling effect. With their backs to the rescued, the rescuers stood their ground until order had been restored. Only then did they turn to the man they had saved against the wrath of the mob. "Well, of all things, our old friend Montey Brown," cried Jay in surprise, recognizing at once the yard superintendent! "Jay Thacker! And Dick Monaghan! Did you ever? And Larry Seymour," exclaimed the veteran official, bruised and battered, but smiling through it all. CHAPTER III SIGNED UP FOR SALVAGE "By George! that was a narrow call for me," vouchsafed Brown, the yard superintendent, to the three rescuers, whom he had invited into his office following the tilt with the crowd of rioters. His face a mass of bruises, poor old Montey presented a sorry spectacle. "But for you fellows, to say nothing of this bully good dog of war of yours, things might have gone bad for me," he continued, still somewhat out of breath. "I'm deeply indebted to you chaps and feel I never can repay you." The boys bowed modestly and asked the old "super" to tell them what it all was about. A truculent delegation of the so-called "Reds," it appeared, had awaited the superintendent just outside his office, prepared to present their inordinate demands. Led by their more rabid leaders they had presented what was virtually an ultimatum, and finally had become menacing when Brown told them he would have to lay the whole proposition before the management. "We want an answer right now or we will start something," was their nasty reply. And as the superintendent had turned to make his way back into his offices they had closed in on him. One hot-headed belligerent had started the fireworks with a well-aimed blow, and then followed the riot. "But now it's all over and I have to thank you boys for your game stand against such odds," he concluded. In turn the superintendent quizzed the boys about where they had been and what they had been doing these last two years. He listened attentively to Jay's modest statement of facts, being particularly interested in the description of how the Americans had laid the mine curtain across the North Sea. "You both have had experience at deep-sea diving, haven't you?" he asked. The boys replied affirmatively, Dick adding some details. "And I reckon you are both after jobs for the summer, aren't you?" he asked again after learning that Jay and Dick expected to return to Brighton in the fall. "You're right," they replied together.