"Arewe heading straight course?" was Dave's next question through the air.
"You're going straight," came the cheering information.
"Found out your hurt?"
"Yes; gas-bag intact, and we've withdrawn out of easy range. One motor damaged more than we can repair in air. Can limp home, however."
"Leave the steamship to me," Darrin wirelessed back.
Inside of another minute and a half, Darrin made out the mast-tops of the stranger sticking up from the fringe of haze as the cloudy, reddish curtain shifted.
If Dave had sighted his intended prey, so had the stranger caught sight of the destroyer. The steamship cut a wide circle and turned tail.
"He's going at nineteen knots, we judge," came the radio report from the "blimp."
"That won't do him any good!" was the laconic answer that Darrin returned, this time in plain English instead of code.
The lower masts, the stack and then the hull of the stranger became visible as Darrin gained on him.
Bang! A shell struck the water ahead of the stranger, the war-ship's world-wide signal to halt.
Instead, the stranger appeared to be trying to crowd on more speed.
"Give him one in the stern-post," Darrin ordered.
The shell fell just a few feet short. The third one landed on the after-part of the stranger's deck-house.
And now there went fluttering up the top of the destroyer's mast the international code signal:
"Stop or we'll sink you!"
It took another shell, this one crashing through the stern of the stranger, to convince her skipper that the destroyer was in deadly earnest.
By this time the "Grigsby" was a bare half-mile away, and going fast.
"We're bringing to bear on you to blow you out of the water," Darrin signalled this time. "Will you stop?"
If he had made any plan to die fighting the fleeing skipper must have lost his nerve at that point, for he suddenly swung his bow around, reduced speed and moved ahead at mere steerage-way.
"Call Ensign Peters to clear away a launch withan armed crew," Darrin directed. "I will accompany him, for I must see what reason that craft had for firing on a British dirigible."
On either bow of the strange steamship was painted the national flag of the same neutral nation to which the "Olga" had appeared to belong. She flew no bunting.
"Stand by to receive boarding party," a signalman on the "Grigsby's" bridge wigwagged as the launch started toward the water.
The two craft lay now not more than five hundred yards apart. Across the water sped the fast power launch and came up alongside of the unknown steamship, which displayed no name.
Not a human being was now visible on her deck. An undersized watch officer had appeared on the bridge, but he now vanished.
"Who commands that destroyer?" demanded a voice in English, though it had the broken accent of a German-born speaker.
"I do," Darrin replied.
"Then stay where you are, for you're covered!" ordered the same voice in a frenzied tone. "We're not going to have you aboard. Signal the destroyer to make off at top speed and we'll leave you when she is out of sight. Refuse, and we kill you at once. Refuse, and you lose your life."
"Lower your gangway, and stop your nonsense," Dave ordered, angrily. "You're dealing with theUnited States Navy, and your orders cannot control our conduct."
"Then you are a dead man, at once!" declared the voice of the unseen speaker.
Unnoticed by others, Darrin had given a hand signal to a petty officer in the bow of the launch.
"If you do not lower your side gangway at once, we shall find our own means for boarding," Dave shouted, wrathfully. "Instantly, sir!"
Thereupon half a dozen heads appeared over a bulwark above. As many rifle muzzles were thrust over the edge of the bulwark and a prompt fire began.
Disdaining to draw his automatic Darrin stood up in the launch, the center of such a hail of bullets that his continued existence seemed incredible. Above the reports of the rifles could be heard the voice of Ensign Peters as he directed the swinging around of the launch.
R-r-r-r-rip! The launch's machine gun came swiftly into play. Bullets rattled against the iron sides of the ship.
Four of the six seamen on her deck were seen to fall back; the remaining two fled as fast as they could go.
Then the muzzle of the machine gun was swung, and a hundred little missiles were driven through the wheel-house.
At an unspoken signal the launch moved in until a sailor in the bow could hurl upward an iron grappling hook. At the first cast it caught on at the top of the rail, while the machine gunners trained their weapon to "get" any one who endeavored to cast off the grapple.
"Up with you!" shouted Darrin. One after another half a dozen sailors raced up the rope, swinging over to the deck.
Dave followed next, then more seamen. All were armed and ready for instant work of the sternest kind.
Two sailors lay dead, rifles beside them. Pools of blood showed that at least two more wounded men had been there, but had fled. No one else belonging to the ship was in sight on deck.
"Boatswain's mate, take the bridge," ordered Dave, as more men came up on board. "Put two men in the wheel-house. Take command of the deck with such men as I do not take with me."
Calling half a dozen seamen, and ordering them to draw their automatic revolvers, Darrin proceeded to the chart-room. He tried the door, but found it locked.
"Break it down," he ordered, and in a jiffy the thing had been done. But the chart-room proved to be empty.
Further aft Darrin went along the deck-house. The cabins of the captain and two mates were found to be empty.
"We'll soon know where the crew have gone to," he remarked.
In the dining-room were found three men in dingy blue uniforms, who appeared to be ship's officers. The oldest, who scowled hardest at the same time, Dave took to be the skipper.
"You command this ship?" Darrin inquired.
"If you say so," replied the man addressed.
"You must, for you are the fellow who ordered me to send my ship away," Darrin smiled grimly. "Are you a German?"
"None of your business. Why have you killed two of our crew and hurt others?"
"Drop that nonsense," Darrin retorted, sternly. "You know why we fired on you. And your men slightly wounded two of mine."
"We had a right to," scowled the other.
"You'll know better, by the time you've reached a British prison," Dave rejoined. "Men, place these three fellows under arrest. Search them."
Only the man who appeared to be the craft's master resisted being searched. He swung at one of the sailors, but Darrin jumped in, knocking him down and holding him to the floor.
"Put irons on this scoundrel," he ordered, sharply, a command so quickly obeyed that almost instantly the defiant one found himself manacled. Then Dave yanked the fellow to his feet.
"You are a bully," growled the prisoner.
"I am," mocked Dave, "when I have fellows of your stripe to handle. Men, you'd better iron that pair, too. They belong to the same outfit."
None of the three proved to have any arms on his person.
"Now, where are the members of your crew?" Dave demanded of the manacled skipper.
"Find them!" came the surly retort.
"In what business is this ship engaged?"
"Find out!"
"Bring these prisoners out on deck," Darrin commanded. Then, as the order was obeyed, Darrin made his way to the bridge.
"Boatswain's mate, pipe all hands on deck," he directed.
Shrilly the whistle sounded at the lips of the petty officer. But no men came to answer.
"We'll try other tactics, then," Darrin smiled.
Stepping to the wheel-house door he pulled it open. Inside was evidence of the havoc that the machine gun fire had worked there. Everything had been riddled, including the helmsman, who lay dead on the floor.
At this moment, however, Dave had no time to do more than glance at the dead man. Reaching for the whistle he blew a long blast, and caused the fire bell to be rung, the signal to stand by to abandon ship.
That brought seamen and stokers trooping tothe deck, until more than thirty had so appeared.
"Does any man among you understand English?" Darrin called down as he leaned over the rail in front of the wheel-house.
"I do," came from one of the crew.
"Then inform your mates that this craft has been seized as lawful prize of the United States Navy. Where is your boatswain?"
"That's me," said the same speaker, gruffly.
"Very good. Deliver my message to the crew. Then make sure that all hands are on deck. If you deceive me you will be held sternly to account for trickery."
"All here," reported the boatswain, after a quick count, "except the cook and his helpers."
"Send for them, and tell them to report here at once."
When the ship's force had been summoned, save for the two sailors known to be dead on the starboard side of the ship, Darrin continued:
"There were some wounded men."
"Two," said the boatswain.
"Where are they?"
"Below. One is badly hurt. The other is binding his wounds."
Dave had by this time walked down on to the deck. There was a forecastle large enough to hold the crew, and he ordered all of the men into it, except the boatswain, whom he sent with three ofhis own men to find the wounded. These latter two were brought to the captain's cabin. The two dead seamen, after Darrin had gained their names from the boatswain, were picked up and thrown overboard into the sea. The boatswain was then sent to join the prisoners.
"Four of you men come with me, and we'll search the rest of the cabin part of the ship," Darrin directed.
Off the dining room were four doors that Dave believed opened into sleeping cabins. The first door that Darrin tried proved to be locked. One of his men carried a sledge-hammer that had been found in the wheel-house.
"Batter down the door!" Dave ordered.
Ere this order could be carried out the door flew open. A tall young woman, barely more than twenty years of age, stood in the doorway, her head thrown back, cheeks flushed, her look proud and disdainful. In her right hand she held a revolver.
"Go away from here!" she ordered. "Else I shall kill you!"
"Youwill have to lower that pistol, young lady," warned Dave, calmly, as he walked toward her. The sailors had drawn back to either side of the doorway, but the young woman stood where she could aim at anyone in the American party.
The seaman nearest the revolver glanced quickly at Darrin, as if to inquire whether he should make an attempt to seize her pistol wrist and wrench the weapon away.
But Dave ignored the man's glance as he stepped up, eyeing the young woman coolly.
"Lower the pistol," he warned, again. "If you tried to use it, it would tell against you hard, before an English court, and these are wartimes, you know."
He was now within two feet of the weapon, which was pointed at his head.
"I shall kill you if you try to come near me," the young woman insisted desperately.
But Dave took another step. She pulled the trigger. There was a bright flash, a loud report.
"Lower that pistol!"
"Lower that pistol!"
Dave, however, had been watching that trigger finger. As he saw it stiffen he dropped suddenly almost to his knees, the bullet passing over his head and embedding itself in woodwork across the cabin.
Darrin sprang up unharmed. His cap had caught a powder burn; that was all. He gripped the woman's wrist in a hand of steel. With his other hand he coolly took the pistol away from her, then dropped her wrist.
Bursting into a fit of hysterical weeping the woman drew back, endeavoring to close the cabin door. But Darrin's foot across the sill defeated her purpose.
"You are a brute!" she panted, frantically trying to close the door.
"At least," he assured her, "I have saved you from a crime that would have cost you your own life. Look out, please, for I am going to throw your door wide open."
"You—you coward!" she panted, and struggled to close the door.
"Stand back! I am sorry to have to use force, but you compel it."
As she refused to give ground Darrin gave the door a push that forced her back, crowding her against a berth. Then he stepped into the little cabin.
In a lower berth lay a middle-aged womanwhose piercing black eyes snapped as she surveyed the young naval officer.
"You are a wretch, to intrude here!" cried the older woman.
"One must often do disagreeable things in the line of war duty," Darrin answered, gravely. "For one thing, I must place you both in arrest. Then I shall be obliged to have your cabin searched."
"Oh, if I but had a weapon!" cried the older woman.
"If you had, and were quick enough," Dave assured her, "you might succeed in killing me, but that would not affect our duty here, for there are other officers at hand. Madam, I perceive that you are fully dressed, so I must ask you to rise and leave this cabin, for a few minutes, at least."
"I shall not do it," she snapped.
"Then you will oblige me to call my men in, and they will remove you, using no unnecessary violence, you may be sure, yet employing force just the same."
"You coward!"
The younger woman, too, started in to berate him, but Dave remained calm.
"Will you, at least, not leave the room until I have risen?" demanded the older woman.
Darrin, who had a notion that the women wanted to conceal or destroy something, nodded his assent, but signed to two of the seamen toenter. Under his instructions they took the door off its hinges, carried it outside and laid it on the floor of the dining cabin.
"Now, ladies," Dave called, as he stepped outside, "you will be good enough to come out at once."
"We will come at our good convenience!" snapped the older woman.
"Wrong again. As I am discharging my duty here, you will necessarily come out at once. I shall not be patient if my instructions are defied."
Plainly furious that the door could not be closed, the younger woman assisted the older one to rise from the berth. Then, both expressing their resentment in their glances, the two women came out of the cabin.
"Mother and daughter," guessed Dave.
"Where will you have us sit, Brute?" demanded the younger woman.
"Take any seat in this dining cabin that you please," he replied. "You must sit together, and one of my men will stand before you."
Seats having been taken by the women, Darrin, calling one of the sailors to him, entered the little cabin. The only baggage there, beyond a hand satchel, appeared to be a locked steamer trunk under the lower berth.
"Take that outside," Dave directed. "It need not be investigated until we reach port."
Two dressing sacks and a few toilet articles were all the personal belongings that could be found there, though Darrin did not stop until he and the seaman had inspected pillows, mattresses and all other places that might have concealed papers or other little belongings.
Coming outside after some minutes Darrin asked:
"Ladies, do you wish to remain in the dining room, or will you go back to your sleeping cabin?"
"We will remain here for the present," replied the older woman. "If we wish to return to our own cabin later on we will do so."
"Wrong again," Dave informed her. "You must remain in one place. There can be no roaming about. This seaman who is your guard will see that you remain where you are for the present. I cannot permit you to leave this part of the dining room. Ladies, I regret being obliged to be so disagreeable, but I beg to assure you that your rights will be respected, and that you shall come to no harm if you obey instructions."
Then he looked into the other three cabins, but found them empty. With that Darrin left the dining room, after detailing another seaman to remain on duty there with the guard over the two women.
Darrin's next care was to inspect the holds. Here he found a cargo that appeared to consistof hundreds of cases of dried fish. At random he selected one of the cases, had it carried to the deck, and ordered that it be opened. Its contents proved to be dried fish.
"There is something worse than that on board, or the skipper would not have acted so much like a lunatic," Dave told himself.
Next inspecting the engine room and stoke hole he found these departments in order, though the fires under the boilers would soon need attention.
Going above, Dave called the stokers and engineers out from among the prisoners, told them that he intended to send them to their posts, and asked them if they would pledge themselves to obey all orders and bridge signals, and not attempt any treachery.
This promise was quickly given.
"I hope you will all keep your word," Dave added, firmly, "for, if any of you attempts treachery, he will be shot down where he stands. I shall post guards."
He posted two of his men in the engine-room, and four in the stoke-hole.
"Be vigilant, and don't stand any nonsense," he ordered.
Returning to deck he gave his final orders to Ensign Peters, who had come on board and relieved the boatswain's mate.
"We are going to take this ship through to ourbase port," he informed the ensign. "You will command, and will use the petty officers as you need them. I shall require but three of the launch crew to take me back to the 'Grigsby.' You have sufficient force here, Mr. Peters, but we shall stand by and so be ready to give any assistance you may need. Keep yourself informed as to the comfort and conduct of the women prisoners in the dining cabin, and do not permit them to be annoyed by your men. They must have no chance, though, to destroy or conceal any papers they may have on their persons."
With that Darrin went over the side. The launch took him back to his own craft.
Overhead the "blimp" moved slowly about. While her commander was sure he could reach England safely he preferred to remain in company that could rescue his crew and himself if it became necessary.
"Who can the women be?" Lieutenant Fernald wondered, when he had heard Dave's account of the visit to the steamship.
"I don't know. But their conduct, like the skipper's, is the main cause of their predicament. Had they behaved naturally I would have guessed them to be passengers from a neutral port to England. All I can say is that, though they speak English well, I am sure that they are not Englishwomen."
"The younger woman is a beauty, you say?"
"Yes, and her mother, if the older woman be such, is not at all unprepossessing."
The two ships and their aerial companion were now headed toward Darrin's base port, traveling at a good rate of speed.
It was well along in the evening when they passed the "Reed." In code Dalzell exultantly reported that an unusually large number of mines had been swept and removed from the water, and that two submarines had been located on the middle shoal and destroyed.
"Good work!" Dave wirelessed back.
Late that night, the "blimp" still leading the way, the destroyer and her prize entered the base port.
As soon as they had come to anchor Darrin communicated with the British flag-ship. Officials promptly went aboard the steamer to attend to the removal to a prison on shore of the officers and crew of the steamship, and of the women passengers as well.
Immediately after that the ship was subjected to a systematic search by seamen and longshoremen acting under the direction of British naval officers.
A name-plate, ready to fit to the front of the wheel-house, was found. The craft proved to be the "Louisa," well known in a certain British portat which she had been accustomed to call with cargoes of dried fish. The fish now on board was taken off rapidly into lighters. And then it was that, in a sub-hold under the cargo deck, a more significant cargo was found.
From that sub-hold were removed nearly six hundred floating mines of the commonest German pattern. All had been packed with extreme care, and all were ready for transferring to German submarine mine-layers at sea.
It was after two in the morning when Captain Allaire, an officer of the British military intelligence department, came on board the "Grigsby," requesting that her commander be called. Dave received Captain Allaire in the chart-room. Allaire had come to seek information as to the speech and conduct of the two women at the time of their arrest.
Dave answered these questions carefully, then added:
"I shall be glad, indeed, if I brought in women prisoners of real importance along with the other prisoners."
"There are very few pairs whom we would rather have in our prisons," answered Captain Allaire. "The older woman is the notorious Sophia Weiner; the younger is her daughter, Anna Weiner. They use various other names, though. Every intelligence and secret service officer inGreat Britain knows of their exploits, and is ever on the lookout for them."
"Then I am astonished that they should have embarked on a steamship bound for England," Dave returned. "They must have faced certain arrest on landing."
"I don't believe they intended coming to England," Allaire answered. "Probably they were on their way to Spain. It may have been that no German submarine was leaving for the Spanish coast just at the time, and it was imperative that they reach Spain early. So, I take it, they journeyed to the neutral country and embarked on the 'Louisa,' knowing that the skipper could transfer them to a submarine bound for Spain. We are amazed at this fellow, Hadkor, skipper of the 'Louisa.' We had believed him to be all right, and he had ready access to our ports with his cargoes. But his ship has been found to be fitted with all facilities for transferring mines at sea, and also with an anti-aircraft gun and a stock of rifles and ammunition. The work must have been excellently paid for by the Germans, for the crew were assuredly in the secret, and ready even to fight, and they surely had to be paid for their risks."
"Then it was a very important catch that the 'blimp' ran us into."
"One of the best in a six-month," replied Captain Allaire. "And yet that skipper fellow and his crew must be lunatics, for their conduct lays them liable to being hanged as pirates."
When the "Grigsby" put out to sea before daylight Dave Darrin lay asleep. He slept extremely well, too, in the consciousness of a day's duties well done.
Bothcommanding officers were asleep when the "Grigsby" and the "Reed" passed each other that morning, the "Grigsby" proceeding on to her station.
Dave would have gone back on the same water route he had hunted over the day before, but the dirigible, which had reached England safely, had not yet been put in shape for further service, and there was at present no other dirigible that could be spared for his service.
Therefore it was a matter of back to the shoals for temporary duty, yet of a kind that was very important.
At ten o'clock he was called, as that was the hour he had named for relieving Lieutenant Fernald.
The executive officer had come into the chart-room to call him, and remained while Darrin performed his hasty toilet.
"What's the weather?" Darrin asked.
"Misty, sir," replied the executive officer. "There's a fine drizzle, mixed with some fog. Forthe last half hour it has been impossible to see more than six hundred yards. That is why we are running at half speed. We're close to the middle shoal and I was afraid we'd run down one of our own mine-sweepers."
"The kind of weather every ship's master dreads," Dave remarked.
"Yes, sir, and the weather bites you through to the marrow. The temperature isn't very low, but I think you'll find yourself more comfortable if you dress warmly. I found it so cold as to be necessary to wear the sheepskin under my heaviest rain-coat."
In finishing his dressing Darrin bore this suggestion in mind. In a few minutes he stepped out on deck. The weather proved to be as unpleasant as Fernald had asserted, and Dave was glad that he was warmly clad, for the wind, though not strong, was piercing.
"Sighted any mine-sweeper on the shoal?" Dave asked of Ensign Ormsby, the watch officer, as soon as he reached the deck.
"Only on the first shoal, which is in the 'Reed's' station, sir," Mr. Ormsby replied. "Those belonging to our station must be farther north. And we've sighted none out in deeper water. We couldn't in this thick weather, anyway."
"The view is so limited that this doesn't look like a promising day for us," Dave mused aloud, ashe gazed around at as much of the water as he could see.
"It really doesn't, sir."
"Better reduce to one-quarter speed. The less speed the less chance there will be of the enemy hearing us."
Accordingly the "Grigsby" rolled along slowly, the splash and ripple of the water along her sides being a soothing accompaniment.
For an hour they proceeded thus, without sighting a ship. They had passed the middle shoal, and were somewhat north of it when the two officers on the bridge observed that the sun was struggling feebly through the clouds and mist. A minute later, as if by magic, it burst out brightly, and the mist began to fade away.
"By Jove, sir, look at that!" almost whispered Ensign Ormsby.
Some seven hundred yards away from them, motionless on the water, her deck fully exposed, lay a submarine.
Neither deck gun was above decks. At least a dozen of the crew stood near the conning tower, and, of all things in the world, fishing.
"Quick work, there!" Dave called through the bridge telephone to the gunners forward. "Let number one gun send a shell over the craft. Don't hit her at the first shot. We'll capture that fellow, if possible!"
So quickly did the shot come that it was the first intimation the German seamen had of enemy presence.
From aloft the signal broke out:
"Don't try to fire a shot, or to turn, or we'll sink you!"
An officer's head popped up through the manhole of the conning tower, then almost as quickly was withdrawn.
As the "Grigsby," obeying her engines, leaped forward, the men behind both forward guns stood ready to fire at the word.
For the submarine crew to bring either gun into place would be the signal for the destroyer to open fire at a range constantly decreasing. Nor could the enemy craft employ her torpedo tubes without turning, which would have been instant signal for Darrin to order his gunners to fire on the submarine.
Through the manhole of the enemy craft leaped a signalman, flags in hand. Using the international code he wigwagged rapidly this message:
"We will make a grace of necessity and surrender."
"That doesn't necessarily mean that they do surrender," Dave 'phoned to the officer in charge of the forward gun division. "If the enemy makes a move to bring a gun into view, or to swing sothat a torpedo tube could be used, fire without order and fire to sink!"
The German commander evidently understood that this would be the course of the Yankees, for as the "Grigsby" bore down upon the submarine not a threatening move was visible.
Instead, the Hun crew, unarmed so far as the watchers on the destroyer could see, emerged from the conning tower and moved well up forward.
"Prepare to lower two boats," Dave called, and added instructions for a large crew for each launch. As the "Grigsby" came about and lay to, the launches were lowered. In the bow of each small craft was mounted a machine gun ready for instant action. The double prize crew was permitted to board the submarine without sign of opposition. At the command, German seamen began to file past two petty officers, submitting to search for hidden weapons, then passing on into the launches alongside.
Last of all four officers came through the manhole, preparatory to enduring the same search. When all the prisoners had been taken aboard, the launches started back to the "Grigsby."
Dave Darrin caught sight of the officers, as the launches approached the destroyer, and felt like rubbing his eyes.
"The ober-lieutenant and von Schelling!" he exclaimed with a start. "They haven't recognized me yet. When they do that ober-lieutenant is going to wish that he had voted for going to the bottom of the sea!"
Not, indeed, until the officers came up over the side of the "Grigsby," and found Dave Darrin waiting on the deck, did the quartette of officers discover who their captor was.
"You?" gasped the ober-lieutenant! "Impossible!"
"Yes; you didn't expect to see me again, did you?"
"I—I—I thought you were——"
The German checked himself.
"You thought you had sent me to the bottom of the sea," Dave went on. "It wasn't your fault that you didn't, but you missed your guess."
Dave then gave the order for housing the prisoners below.
"Are you sending the officers to the same place of detention that you are sending my men?" demanded the ober-lieutenant, a spark of assertiveness in his manner.
"Unfortunately, I am obliged to do so," Dave answered. "I am aware that German officers consider themselves to be of a brand of clay much superior to that used in making their men."
"But we officers are gentlemen!" retorted the ober-lieutenant, drawing himself up stiffly.
"It's a point that might be argued," returnedDarrin, lightly. "Yet there is no other course, for we have no detention space apart from the main one on board, so it is the only place that we can use for confining German officers—and gentlemen."
"May I request the privilege of a few words with you before you send me below?" requested the ober-lieutenant, unbending a trifle.
"Certainly," Dave assured him, and the guard that was marshaling the prisoners below permitted the recent German commander to step out of the line.
"I will see you in my chart-room," said Dave. Lieutenant Fernald, who had been standing by, caught Dave's signal and entered with his chief.
Once inside Ober-Lieutenant Dreiner turned and gazed at Fernald.
"I had expected a private interview, Herr Darrin," he said, rather stiffly.
"Lieutenant Fernald is my executive officer, and nothing goesonboard with which he is not familiar," Darrin replied. "Have a seat, Herr Ober-Lieutenant."
"And must I speak before—before your subordinate?" asked the German, as he dropped into the chair that had been indicated.
"If you speak at all," Darrin answered.
"But will Herr Fernald keep inviolate what I have to say?"
"In that," Darrin promised, "he will be governed by circumstances."
Dreiner hesitated for a few seconds before he began:
"I—I—er—I have to refer to an incident that followed our last words together on a former occasion."
"You mean, of course, the time, when you assembled on the deck of your craft four prisoners, of whom I was one, then closed your manhole and submerged, leaving us floundering in the water, and, as you expected, to die by drowning?"
"I have not admitted that any such thing took place," Herr Dreiner cried, hastily, with a side glance at Lieutenant Fernald.
"It will make no difference, Herr Dreiner, whether you admit or deny that inhuman attempt to murder four helpless prisoners," Dave rejoined. "It so happened that all four of us kept alive until rescued, and we are all four ready, at any time, to appear against you. So there is no use in evasion."
"Then you intend to bring the charge against me?" asked Dreiner, in a voice husky with either emotion or dread.
"I can make neither promises nor threats as to that," Darrin countered.
"The stern British military courts would sentence me to death on that charge."
"Probably," Dave agreed.
"And I have a very particular reason for wanting to live," Dreiner went on.
"Yes?"
"I have eight young children at home, and their sole dependence is on what I earn," the German continued. "I do not mind dying, for myself, but in that event what will become of my poor little children?"
"You Germans fill me with disgust!" Dave Darrin exclaimed, rising, as though to terminate the interview. "It seems to be a rule with you fellows, when you find yourselves facing death, to whine about the children you must leave behind to starve. Before you set out to murder me in an especially brutal manner, did you take the trouble to ask me whetherIhad any children who would starve? Did you ask Mr. and Mrs. Launce whether they had children that were not provided for? And what about that honest old sea-dog, Captain Kennor? Did you pause to inquire whether he was leaving hungry children behind? For that matter, have any of you wild beasts on German submarines ever worried yourselves about the families you orphaned by your inhuman crimes at sea? Even in the case of the 'Lusitania,' didthatsubmarine commander ask himself, or any one else, what would happen to the women and children who were pitched into the sea? You are wild to murder innocent, harmless people belonging to an enemy nation, yet when you yourselves are brought face to face with death you are all alike. You whine! You beg! Dreiner, you are not man enough to play the game! Your appeal in the name of your eight children, who, for that matter, may not even exist, falls on deaf ears when you address me. I hope that you will be summoned before a British court and that you may be sentenced to pay the full penalty for your crimes!"
Dreiner's face went ashen-gray as he staggered to his feet. Probably he really was concerned for the fate of his children, but his was not the sort of record that invited pity.
"I will not detain you here," Dave finished coldly. "If I did, I might be tempted to abuse a prisoner, and that is something no American fighting man can really do. Orderly!"
As the orderly stepped in, saluting, Dreiner tried a last appeal:
"Why do you hate us Germans so?" he whined. "I know that you do not hate me especially, but that you hate all of our race!"
"Why do we hate you?" Darrin echoed. "The reason is that, from all we hear, fellows like yourself appear to be fair samples of the German officer, on land and afloat. If that does not answer your question fully, I can think of other reasons to give you. I would rather not, for itbrings me perilously close to the offense of abusing a prisoner, and that I do not wish to do. Orderly, call two men and instruct them to take Ober-Lieutenant Dreiner below to join the other prisoners."
As the German stepped past the Yankee commander he glared into Dave's face, hissing:
"To-day it is your chance to humiliate and condemn a German. It may not be long ere your turn comes, and a German officer tells you what your end is to be!"
"I am ever at Fate's orders," Darrin answered, with a bow.
Whenthe "Grigsby," in broad daylight, steamed into the base port with a captured submarine and her crew, and a German commanding officer who was liable for a dastardly crime at sea, there was great rejoicing both on the other naval vessels and on shore.
If the German prisoners expected a stormy reception when they were landed and placed under a guard of soldiers, they were disappointed, for nothing of the sort awaited them.
The British populace, though it turned out to see the captives marched through the streets, proved to be too good sportsmen to make a violent demonstration against their now helpless enemies.
Darrin had no sooner turned over the prize and made his report to the British admiral than he was ready for sea once more.
"Mr. Darrin," said the admiral, heartily, "when you went out the other day you promised to show me results. I take this opportunity to assure you that you have. You yourself have made some notable captures, and have destroyed someenemies whom you could not capture. Mr. Dalzell's record has also been a splendid one. The plan by which you are catching mine-layers on or near the shoals before they start out on new mine-laying work is one that has enabled our mine-sweeping craft to accomplish more than they have hitherto been able to do. The record of mines discovered and swept out of the paths of navigation is a fine one, but you have done even better work in blocking the enemy so thoroughly in their operation of laying the mines in the first instance. Your successes are assuming extremely notable proportions. To-morrow the dirigible will be ready to start out again to aid in finding mine-cargo-carrying submarines bound for these waters."
"Sir," Dave replied, "I greatly appreciate your words of praise, and I can speak in the same vein for Mr. Dalzell. Now, as he has had no share in destroying the submarines that bring over cargoes of mines I intend to detail him for that work to-morrow."
"That fits in with my plans," nodded the admiral. "If you will put to sea and find the 'Reed,' and then return to this port, dropping anchor, but keeping up steam, I shall have for you, to-night or to-morrow, a special task of the greatest importance."
"Very good, sir. Is that all for the present?"
"Yes. Your further instructions will be given to you when the time comes."
"Very good, sir. Thank you."
Saluting, Darrin left the flagship, returning at once to the "Grigsby," which soon put to sea. The weather being now comparatively clear, Darrin raced away at nearly full speed. Not long afterward he overhauled and boarded the "Reed," informing Dalzell of his chance to go on the hunt for the submarine mine-carrying craft on the morrow.
"I had been wondering if I was to have a little share in that sport of kings," said Dan, with one of his grins.
"You prevaricator!" Darrin uttered, sternly. "When did I ever hog all of the best sport and leave you the rind?"
"Kamerad! Don't shoot!" begged Dan, with another grin.
"Kamerad" (comrade) is the word the German soldiers employ when offering to surrender to Allied troops. But "Kamerad" does not always mean as much as it conveys, for instances have been numerous when Germans have pretended so to surrender, then have whipped out hitherto hidden weapons and slain their captors.
Returning to port before dark, Darrin put in that night in catching up with his sleep. He slumbered almost without stirring, for it had beenlong since he had enjoyed more than a part of his needed rest at sea.
Officers and men, too, made the most of their opportunity to sleep that night. Only one officer at a time kept deck watch, and only one engineer officer down below. The "Grigsby" was ready to put to sea almost on an instant's notice from the flagship, but no word came.
Fully refreshed, and in the best of condition, Dave Darrin enjoyed a famously good breakfast the next morning, as did every officer and man on the destroyer. Still the orders for special duty had not arrived, and Dave was beginning to chafe under the delay.
"If it were the first of April I might suspect the bluff old admiral were playing a joke on us," Dave confided to Lieutenant Fernald. "I might think this was his way of affording us all a chance to get even with our rest. I am wondering much what the special duty is to be."
"You will know, sir, in the same breath that you are ordered away to that duty," smiled the executive officer.
"Yes, this is war-time and advance information is very rare," Darrin admitted.
It was, in fact, nearly eleven o'clock when a man of the deck watch reported that a boat had put off from the flagship and was apparently heading for the "Grigsby."
"I'll go out to receive the visitor," said Fernald, rising and leaving the chart-room.
The boat was, indeed, heading for the destroyer. It soon came alongside, bringing a staff officer from the admiral. Lieutenant Fernald received the visitor, conducted him to the chart-room, presented the officer caller to Dave, then discreetly withdrew.
"The admiral's compliments, Mr. Darrin. He spoke to you yesterday of special duty of a most important nature. I have the honor to bear his final instructions."
"Then you are doubly welcome," smiled Dave, "for we have been chafing a bit, fearing that the admiral's plans might have been changed."
"There has been considerable activity on the part of German submarines in these waters of late," continued the British naval staff officer. "As a rule the Huns keep out of the channel, but they have been so active lately that we fear for the safety of the hospital ship 'Gloucester,' which is bringing home about two thousand wounded men. It was the admiral's plan to have you leave port, under full speed, an hour before the sailing time of the 'Gloucester' from France."
"Is there still time for us to get that hour's start?" asked Darrin, rising.
"Unfortunately, the orders were misunderstood, Mr. Darrin. The 'Gloucester' actually sailedabout an hour ago. You will find her exact course written on this paper, and you are directed by the admiral to reach her with all speed and convoy her——"
"One moment, please!"
Darrin broke off the conversation long enough to telephone the executive officer, instructing him to transmit the needful orders to the engineer officer on duty, and to pipe all hands on deck.
"I am listening, sir," Darrin resumed, wheeling about.
"Outside you will find two of our fastest mine-sweepers," continued the staff officer. "They are to follow you as closely as possible, and, on nearing the 'Gloucester,' they are to turn and sweep the course ahead of the hospital ship, while you are to be extremely alert for submarines."
"I understand, sir," Darrin nodded. "Are there any further orders?"
"No, Mr. Darrin. Whatever else comes up must be left to your own discretion to handle. The admiral bade me state that he has the fullest confidence in your proven ability to handle circumstances as they arise."
"My thanks to the admiral for his good opinion, and to yourself for informing me of it," smiled Dave, still on his feet and moving slowly toward the door.
"I—er—have some further information, Mr.Darrin, that will prove of considerable interest to you," resumed the naval staff officer, also moving toward the door.
"Yes?"
"It possesses a personal interest for you. There are, of course, nurses on board, and other Red Cross workers. One of them is Mrs. Darrin."
Dave's quick smile of happiness was reflected in the staff officer's ruddy face.
"So, you see, Mr. Darrin, you have more than a professional interest in meeting the hospital ship and bringing her through safely, for in doing so you will also be guarding your wife. It is rather an unusual stimulus to duty, isn't it?"
"No, sir!" said Dave, promptly. "I love my wife, and it will not surprise you to hear me say it, but in the discharge of my duty Mrs. Darrin has exactly the same status as a stranger. I shall be glad, for my own sake, to bring through in safety any ship on which she sails, but I shall be just as glad to be able to insure the safety of any wounded Tommy Atkins on the 'Gloucester' who is longing for a sight of his loved ones at home."
"By Jove, that's a bully attitude, and I know you mean it!" cried the staff officer, holding out his hand. "I must not delay you. Good-bye, Darrin, and the best of good luck to you!"
A moment later the British officer was over the side and being borne back to the flagship, while quick orders rang out on the "Grigsby." In as short a time as the thing could be done the anchor was stowed, and the destroyer was on her way out of port at half speed.
Just beyond the harbor Darrin gave the order for full speed ahead. From the bridge, threemiles farther out on the course, he made out the two mine-sweepers.
"All starts well," commented Dave to Lieutenant Fernald. "May all end as well! By the way, Mrs. Darrin is said to be on board the 'Gloucester'."
"Congratulations," said Fernald, heartily. "And you may look, sir, for every officer and man aboard this craft to redouble his efforts to make the day's task a complete success."
"I don't want it for that reason, although I expect from all on board the fullest efficiency. Fernald, I'm not running an American naval vessel primarily for the safety of my family."
For this trip the lookouts were trebled. They stood at every point of vantage from which anything on the sea might be sighted.
Mile after mile the "Grigsby" logged, plunging and dipping in the sea, her decks running water and spray dashing continuously over the bridge. It was wet work, and over all was the roaring racket of the ship's powerful machinery. To Darrin it was music; the dash and the sense of responsibility thrilled him.
At last came the anxiously awaited hail from the lookout aloft:
"Topmasts of a ship almost dead ahead, sir."
"Keep her constantly in sight, and as soon as you can make out the hull report whether she displays the hospital Red Cross," the watch officer called back.
"Aye, aye, sir."
To those on the bridge the mastheads were soon visible. After that came the lookout's hail:
"She's a hospital ship, sir. I can make out the Red Cross plainly through the glass."
"It must be the 'Gloucester,' then," remarked Lieutenant Fernald.
"Pass the word that the first man really to sight a periscope or a conning tower shall have a fortnight's shore leave extra," Dave ordered.
He smiled as he heard the scattering cheer that greeted that announcement.
"The real way to the sailorman's heart lies through extra shore leave," he told Fernald.
"I wouldn't mind winning that prize myself," muttered the executive officer. "That is, if I were sure that I could honestly accept the leave without prejudice to duty."
"Find the periscope, then," smiled Darrin. "I am sure I can win the promised reward, even for the executive officer."
Not long afterward they were in plain sight of the "Gloucester." On she came, the smoke pouring from her pair of funnels. A fast craft, the hospital ship was making about her best time in her hurry to get safely across with her precious human cargo.
Then the "Grigsby" swung far out to port, cut a part of a circle, and came back on the hospital ship's port bow, darting ahead again, cutting across the hospital ship's bow far ahead and to port, then turning and crossing once more.
After the two craft had proceeded some distance farther the two mine-sweepers were sighted well ahead. These craft would soon turn and sweep the waters for mines ahead of the hospital ship.
Not mere fancy capers was the "Grigsby" cutting. As she crossed the "Gloucester's" bows time and again her lookouts were able to keep sharp watch to port and starboard of the ship that bore a human cargo of pain and suffering. It was the only way for a solitary destroyer to keep effective watch on both sides of the ship she was convoying.
Twice Dave used his glass to glance along the nearer rail of the steamship in search of Belle Darrin. He did not find her thus, and did not try again, for he must not fail in his unceasing watch for the ship's safety.
The mine-sweepers signalled their message of greeting, then turned and swung into place. From this point the "Gloucester" and her escort slowed down speed to accommodate that of the smaller craft.
The vessel wearing the emblem of the RedCross had not yet reached the spot at which the sweepers had turned.
Over the sea came a sullen, significant roar. The "Gloucester" shivered from stem to stern. A wail of anguish went up in concert from the soldiers on board the hospital ship who were worst wounded.
It had come so suddenly that, for an instant, Dave Darrin was dazed.
"That wasn't a torpedo!" he cried, hoarsely, a second or two later.
"She hit a mine, sir," reported Lieutenant Fernald. "It wasn't the fault of the sweepers, either, for they hadn't time to get that far. But it's awful—awful! There'll be hundreds of the poor fellows drowned!"
Dave quickly recovered his presence of mind. As the "Gloucester" shut off speed Darrin turned and dashed at full speed to the aid of the stricken craft.
Even as the race of rescue began Darrin sent to the radio operator this message to send broadcast through the air:
"S. O. S.! Hospital ship 'Gloucester' has struck mine and must founder soon. Rush at best speed to give aid. S. O. S.!"
In the message Darrin included also the exact position of the stricken vessel.
Two launches were swung outward on thedavits. Darrin sprang down to the deck to personally select the men to man the launches. Into the launches were thrown several rolls of heavy canvas and rolls of cordage, as well as such tools as might be needed.
By the time that the "Grigsby" had shut off speed and lain to, the decks of the "Gloucester" were observed to be crowded with people.
The two launches, with Dave Darrin in one of them, shoved off and were quickly alongside the hospital ship. Two ship's ladders were let down over the side. Up these went the two boarding parties as rapidly as they could move. Lines came swirling down, and canvas rolls and other supplies were hoisted to the deck. This work was all quickly done.
Not a second must be lost. Dave ordered Ensign Peters and several men forward to the bow of the hospital ship. With the remainder, Dave, carrying a roll of canvas over one shoulder, and all hands carrying some burden, started to go below.
With a group of Red Cross nurses who stood silently and calmly by the patients who were being borne to the deck, Darrin was sure that he caught sight of Belle.
But he did not look a second time. There was too much to be done now when seconds were precious. Nor did Belle look up from the workthat she was doing among the wounded on stretchers.
A member of the crew led the American party below. Here Dave found two mates and a score of sailors already at work. They were trying to accomplish the very thing Darrin had come prepared to do—to rig canvas over the hole in the hull to shut out as much of the water as was possible.
If this could be accomplished, and if the "Gloucester's" pumps could drive out most of the water that got in past the canvas patch, then it might be possible for the hospital ship to keep afloat until other rescue craft could reach the scene.
"We'll take your orders, sir," spoke up one of the mates, saluting, as Dave and his party reached a forward hold where, despite the flimsy canvas patch already rigged, the water was almost waist-deep.
"We'll work together," returned Dave, briefly. "It may turn out that the ship can be kept afloat for an hour or two."
"The bulkheads were shut, sir," the mate explained, hurriedly, "but fragments of the mine entered this first water-tight compartment, and also the second. You'd better go down into the second compartment, too, sir."
Darrin hurried up to the deck, followed by themates and their men. The hole in the first compartment extended some six inches below water line and some two feet above. It was a long, jagged hole. Trying to descend into the second compartment with the chief mate, Darrin found that the hole here extended at least a foot below water line.
"It's going to be no use, sir," said the mate, sorrowfully. "I don't believe the ship can be kept afloat more than ten minutes before she goes down by the head. These are our two biggest compartments."