CHAPTER IX.
ANOTHER BLOWING UP.
For the moment after Captain Oscar Pelham made his terrible discovery that Lieutenant Raxtell intended to blow up the new Holland he could neither move nor speak.
He clearly saw that the lieutenant was mad, but what had caused his insanity was a mystery.
His face was like chalk, and his eyes rolled in a fashion horrible in the extreme.
"We will all go to heaven!" he heard the naval officer mutter. "All go to heaven—and that will be better than going home. Home! Ha! ha! So the admiral would not give me shore leave? I will show him a trick or two! Here goes!"
"Hold!"
The cry came from Oscar, and aroused as from a dream, he hurled himself upon the madman and bore him to the floor.
Frothing at the mouth, Raxtell struggled desperately at first to free himself and then to bite Oscar as might a wolf.
But the young commander of the new Holland was fighting for life, and held him as in a vise of steel.
"Let me go!" roared the madman. "Let me go, or I will eat you up alive!"
"Be calm, lieutenant," gasped Oscar. "Be calm. You are not well. Be calm."
"What's the row here?" came from the doorway, and Walton, the ammunition man, came in.
"Quick, he is mad," answered Oscar. "Help me."
"Mad! By Jove, captain, is it possible?"
Walton hurled himself into the contest without hesitation, and between the pair they speedily made Raxtell a close prisoner, binding him hands and feet, and fitting his face with a leather mask, that he might not bite himself or others.
It afterwards came out that the lieutenant was of a nervous disposition, and that homesickness had preyed upon his mind until his reason forsook him.
Nothing could be done at present but keep him on board, and realizing that the poor fellow was not accountable for what he had tried to do, Captain Oscar treated him with every consideration.
Early in the morning of the next day the fleet of the enemy was discovered riding the ocean in a vast semi-circle.
The warships numbered thirty-four, and the transports sixty-six, and the sight was a truly imposing one.
"We can't do much against that fleet," said Andy Greggs, after the new Holland had sunk out of sight.
"We can do our share," responded the young captain.
He had his eyes on three ships of the enemy—the British cruiser Terrible, the German gunboat Wilhelm II., and the French ship-of-the-line Philippe.
"I'll sink all three, or know the reason why," he said to himself, and laid his plans with great care.
The three ships he had in view were not over a quarter of a mile apart, one from another, the Terrible being in the center.
This would necessitate a run of half a mile to reach all three warships.
The course of the new Holland was changed and they moved slowly and cautiously up to the Wilhelm II., keeping well under water all of the time.
While the run was being made Oscar held a consultation with the ammunition man and with George Dross.
It was calculated that it would take five minutes to run from one ship to another, and five minutes to adjust each of the several torpedoes.
Soon the Wilhelm II. was gained, and in absolute silence the torpedo was fastened to her keel.
Only fish watched the movement and gazed curiously at the torpedo, against which they rubbed their slimy sides.
"Set the fuse at half an hour," ordered Captain Oscar, and this was done.
Five minutes later they had gained the keel of the Terrible, and here a torpedo was set at twenty minutes.
Then a swift run was made for the Philippe, where they set a torpedo at ten minutes.
"Now run for it!" cried Captain Oscar, and the new Holland spun away, straight into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The torpedoes had been set to go off at exactly half-past eleven, and it lacked but two minutes of that time when the new Holland shot to the surface at a safe distance from the hostile fleet.
But the submarine boat was discovered and at once several torpedo-boats belonging to the British set off to give her chase.
"We are going to catch it from the little fellows," said Andy Greggs, with a grim smile.
"They won't reach us. We'll go down as soon as the explosion is over," answered Captain Oscar.
He held his chronometer in his hand and was counting off the seconds.
The time was up!
As he put the watch in his pocket a deafening roar rent the air, and the German warship was seen to rise in the air and then fall, a broken and shapeless mass upon the waters.
Then came two other roars, one directly after the other, as the English vessel and the French ship-of-the-line caught it.
The explosion under the Philippe was the most perfect, for the craft was literally split to bits, not alone by the torpedo, but by the explosions of her various magazines. Everybody on this ship was killed but a cabin boy, who leaped overboard at the first noise, and was picked up by one of the smaller warships.
With the Terrible it was different. The English cruiser was an unusually large one, and to have cut her to pieces would have taken several torpedoes.
Inside of two minutes she sank, the majority of her crew leaping overboard as she went down.
Some of the sailors were caught in the suction created and went down with the warship, never to rise again.
An explosion under the ocean added to the panic, and many were killed by this.
Over two hundred were floating around on the sea until other warships came to their assistance and picked them up.
The blowing up of the three warships created consternation among the others of the fleet, and signal after signal was displayed from the commanding officer's flagship, all reading: "Clear for sea immediately; a submarine torpedo-boat is among us. Double your watches."
Then the entire fleet began to move for the broad Atlantic, chasing the transports before them.
The torpedo-boats which had come out to do battle with the new Holland were tremendously surprised to see the strange craft slide from view, and realizing that they themselves might be blown up at any instant, they lost no time in running for their lives.
The new Holland could have given them plenty of trouble, but Captain Oscar considered his ammunition too valuable to throw away on such "small fish," as he called them.
"One of our torpedoes costs the government eight thousand six hundred dollars," he said. "Those little chaps aren't worth that to me. I am after big guns."
Considering that the new Holland had done enough for the time being, and wishing to obtain a new supply of torpedoes and dynamite bombs, the young captain now turned back to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and reported to Admiral Fielding.
The admiral had witnessed the blowing up of the three warships through a powerful field glass which was stationed in an observation tower at the top of the mainmast of the flagship, and he was highly delighted at the success of the new Holland's work.
"That craft is a marvel," he said. "The government must have more of them."
"It certainly would be a good thing," replied Oscar. "I think I've got the enemy pretty well frightened. Perhaps they think we already have more than one of these boats, having seen the work done in Cuban waters and now here."
"Perhaps; and I hope they think we have a dozen. They will then imagine their costly warships of no value against such an enemy, and consequently be glad to treat for peace."
Using the wireless telegraphy system on the admiral's flagship, Oscar sent word to Bridgeport arsenal to send him at once a large quantity of torpedoes and dynamite bombs, and also a new style of bomb called highite.
Highite was a new explosive, of which much was expected. A highite shell when it exploded sent hundreds of little shells forth in a circle, which exploded an instant later.
"That is what we ought to have had in Cuban waters," said Andy. "We could then have made those Japanese sick."
A week elapsed before the ammunition reached the new Holland and was stored on board.
In the meantime it was learned that the fleet of the enemy had turned southward, probably with the intention of landing on the New England coast.
The fastest despatch boats in our naval service were sent out to watch the enemy, and at the same time the new Holland was ordered southward, to be in readiness at any time the hostile fleet should show itself too close to our shores.