CHAPTER XIV.LANDING UNDER FIRE.
Those aboard the destroyer had doubtless been on the watch for just such a sight as this for many weeks. Every seaman had been carefully drilled how to use his eyes in order to distinguish what the periscope of a submersible would look like if he ever had the luck to discover one sticking out of the water.
Jack and Amos, after making sure that this was indeed what they saw, closed their hands tight as a sensation akin to alarm passed over them. Would the submarine actually waste one of her valuable torpedoes on the small enemy, a destroyer? They were more inclined to believe the under-sea boat would be apt to dive, and thus slip away from danger.
Orders were hastily given. The speed of the boat suddenly changed as though it were a part of the scheme to confuse the Germans, whomight even then be observing them by means of their periscope.
But this was not to be the sum total of the destroyer’s programme. There came a sudden burst of firing, and the boys saw the water churned into foam around the spot where a few seconds before that queer tube had been sighted.
Nothing could be seen of the under-sea boat, which had evidently gone down after its custom. Already the destroyer had commenced to circle around the place, and everyone aboard strained his eyesight in order to see whether the first sign of the volley from the small guns had succeeded in its mission.
“Why, how still the water seems to be here,” remarked Amos. “Yet all around us the sea is moving in choppy little waves.”
“There may be a reason for that,” said Jack. “You know that sometimes vessels in distress during a storm at sea have found it worth while to tow a bag of oil after them. It helps to smooth the breaking billows a good deal.”
“But how would oil come here, Jack, becausewe haven’t thrown any—oh! do you mean it looks as if the submarine had been struck when they sent that volley at the periscope?”
“That’s what I mean, and if you listen to what the men are saying you’ll see they think the same way,” Jack asserted.
“And if the boat was struck it may never come to the surface again, which would make a lot of jackies in the big fleet happy, I guess,” Amos concluded.
The destroyer circled the spot several times, but nothing was seen beyond some bubbles, and the oil on the surface of the sea. If the submarine had been wrecked they would never know it, because it must stay on the bottom of the sea, and the crew be suffocated as time passed. On the other hand, if it had not been seriously injured by now it was far away, and proceeding under the surface, perhaps heading so as to get at one of the battleships.
One of the first things to be done after communications with the shore had been effected would be to let the commander of the fleet knowabout the presence of a small submarine, so that all extra precautions might be taken against a surprise.
“What happened, do you think, Jack?” wondered Amos, the gunners ready to let fly with another volley at the first sign of the enemy under-sea boat.
“Ask me something easy, please,” he was told. “They’re all hoping the submarine got her death wound, and will never come up again. I’m a little skeptical about that. It wouldn’t surprise me any to hear that before long some warship, perhaps a big one at that, had been torpedoed.”
“Those Germans are seldom caught asleep at the switch, are they?” asked Amos.
“Oh! they’re no better, no worse than others, I take it. The best of them will get caught napping sometimes. When they poked their periscope out so as to take a look around with the coming of daylight they never dreamed a sassy little destroyer was within a hundred feet of them.”
“Do you think they saw us, Jack?”
“As like as not they did, which would accountfor the hurry they showed at sinking again. But the shot covered every foot of the water around where we saw that spying tube. And these gunners have all been instructed just how to shoot so as to bring about the destruction of a submersible.”
“Well, they’re giving it up, you see, Jack, and once more heading toward the lights ashore. I can see them much better now, so I reckon all this firing must have aroused the campers, who are starting up their fires, thinking of breakfast.”
“Another thing you notice, Amos, we’re not going straight any longer, but with a distinct wiggle, turning first to the right and then to the left.”
“Then, after all, they’re not so sure about that submarine, and this motion is for the purpose of avoiding being struck by a torpedo,” Amos suggested, as though he considered that ample explanation for the queer movements of the destroyer.
“No, you’re wrong there,” his chum explained. “I think they’ve got in mind the Turks ashore,who must have a number of batteries mounted back yonder.”
“You mean they half expect to be shot at from now on?” Amos asked.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we were,” Jack admitted. “Thanks to the sea fog that is drifting along the edge of the shore, they will have some trouble locating us. The commander knows what he’s about, you can depend on it, Amos. And I’m not going to worry any more than I can help.”
They were by this time approaching the shore, which they could see was inclined to be rocky and very rough. A shallow beach ran along under the little bluff, however, and a landing could be easily effected if they were not subjected to a hot bombardment from rapid-fire guns.
As Jack had said more than once, the soldiers ashore knew very well how absolutely necessary it was that they should be able to communicate with the fleet; and on this account he believed they had pushed forward far enough to render a landing fairly safe.
Before the destroyer came to a stop there was heard the heavy report of a gun somewhere up on the hillside a mile or so. This was followed by a great splash quite some distance away from them, showing that the missile must have been sent almost at random, or else the gun from which it came had been wretchedly aimed by the Turkish gunners in charge.
“No German sent that compliment to us,” asserted Jack, who had a high opinion of the Kaiser’s artillerymen, from having seen some remarkable results of their gunfire on the western front.
“If it was a Turk I only hope his eyesight keeps on being poor,” voiced Amos, wondering what it would feel like should a shell strike the destroyer fairly amidships, though he certainly had no desire to experience the sensation.
The light was getting stronger now. They, it seemed, had wasted some time in circling around while searching for signs of the submarine, and only for this the boys might have been safely ashore before then.
“They’re getting ready to drop the boat overboard,” Amos remarked a minute later. “That means we’re going ashore. I can see some soldiers under the little bluff, and they seem to be watching us, as if they know we are fetching them news from home. There, I saw a chap toss packages of mail into the boat, which explains the main reason we’re landing here.”
“One of the men ashore has a bag in his hand, which may contain letters some of them have written,” Jack was saying. “I wonder if it’s really true that every letter has to be left open, so no news of importance could be picked up by the enemy. You know over in England they’ve gone daffy over the German spy scare; and one of the Tommies out here might give things away.”
“Come on, Jack, let’s shove along so as to be ready to jump in when we’re given the word.”
“Afraid we may be left, are you, Amos? But it’s just as well to be ready, and then no blame for the delay can be put on our shoulders.”
Another shot came from the Turkish batteryon the slope of the hill. Perhaps by now the enemy had caught a glimpse of the gray destroyer through the little wisps of sea fog that were floating past. At any rate, the shell fell much closer than that first one had, a fact Amos viewed with more or less displeasure.
“They’re sure getting the range, Jack. If they keep on improving that way, by the time the fourth shell comes along it’s going to splash water over us, if nothing worse.”
“But before then we’ll be in the small boat, and pulling as fast as anything for the shore,” he was told; for Jack could always find a way to dissipate those depressing fears that assailed his comrade.
In fact, even before the destroyer had fully stopped moving the rowboat was dropped overboard, and a couple of men sprang into it. The same officer who had taken the boys from the battleship motioned them to follow suit, which they did without the loss of a second, after which he took his place in the stern and the boat started.
Jack and his companion were seated in thebow. They had an uninterrupted view of the land, and could see everything that went on in that quarter.
Amos hoped the Turks might have lost sight of them by now, what with the sea fog, and the fact that the dawn was only coming on. He dreaded the possibility of being made a target for one of those terrible quick-firers that could rattle off the shots like hail beating on a tin roof.
As he sat there he was staring as hard as he could up beyond the little bluff back of the scanty beach. Glimpses of the distant hillside where the enemy lay in ambush could be caught; and since those in hiding were doubtless able to see as well on their part, the boy wondered whether their feeling of security might not turn out to be short-lived.
He knew they must take what came, since there was no way of “ducking” so as to avoid the shower of missiles. Again came that startling flash of fire far up the hillside. Amos involuntarily drew his head in just as if that could do him any good. Jack, on the other hand,turned to glance back at the destroyer, for he felt it reasonable to believe the Turks would be more likely to spend their precious ammunition trying to sink a war vessel, than in smashing so small an object as a mail rowboat with just five occupants.
It was as he suspected. He saw the splash as the missile struck the water, and close to the destroyer, too. The saucy little war vessel had been waiting for this, and immediately fired a volley from her guns. Doubtless small damage, if any, could be effected, for the Turks had built earthen barricades to protect their batteries. It would serve as notice, however, that those aboard the destroyer were not in the least daunted by the bombardment.
At the same time the vessel was seen to be in motion. It was the intention of the commander to take no chances. He could run out a mile or so to sea, and await a signal from those going ashore, when once more the destroyer would come in so as to pick up the boat.
With lusty strokes the two rowers bent to theiroars, and the boat made rapid progress toward the beach where a landing was intended to be made. If all went well for a few minutes Jack felt that they would be under the shelter of that bluff, and hence out of range of the enemy’s guns. But to Amos those minutes seemed the longest he had ever known; at every second he half expected hearing a crash that would announce the opening of new trouble.