CHAPTER XIII
THE LURKING PERIL
The shipping of the men had been carried through so smoothly andswiftly, and everything had moved with such clockwork precision, thatbefore the sun fairly rose the giant steamer was out of sight of land.And any spy who might have been lurking at any point on the coast wouldhave had his trouble for his pains.
The night had been a broken one, but the army boys were so excited thatno one cared for the loss of sleep. Here at last was action. Now theywere fairly launched on the great adventure. Every mile that the greatship traversed was bringing them nearer to the scene of actualfighting, the roar of the cannon, the shriek of shells, the hand tohand conflict with the enemy.
"It must make the Huns sore," laughed Frank, "to think that one oftheir own great ships is carrying us over the ocean to fight the menwho built it."
"Sort of poetic justice, eh?" grinned Billy Waldon.
"They felt they had the goods on us when they smashed the machinery,"said Bart. "They figured it would take at least a year before we couldget the ships in shape again, and yet its only five months since theyscrapped the engines and here they're pounding along as good as new."
"It's not the first mistake the Kaiser's made," agreed Frank. "Whatwas it that fellow Von Papen called us?--idiotic Yankees."
"We weren't so idiotic after all, that we didn't get on to his game andsend him and his pals packing," said Tom.
"There goes the call for breakfast," cried Billy, as the bugle rang outits welcome summons. "This sea view is great but we'll have plenty oftime to enjoy that. Me for the mess and we'll have to get in linequick or with this crowd we won't have a Chinaman's chance."
"Billy wants to eat while he can," grinned Bart, as they plunged alongin his wake. "He's afraid he'll be seasick, later on."
"Not on your life," flung back Billy. "You can't get seasick on thisship. She's so big she rides half a dozen waves at once and she's assteady as a church."
Although the great ship was unchanged as regards the externalappearance, a complete transformation had been effected inside. Whenit had first been built, it had been fitted out and decorated withprincely magnificence but now all the costly and beautiful fittings hadbeen ruthlessly torn out. It was like a great, hollow cavern fromstern to stern. Everything had been sacrificed to the need for space.Cots and hammocks by the thousands took up every available inch thatwas not absolutely needed for other purposes.
It was a gigantic, floating hotel and apart from the crew, whothemselves ran into the hundreds, it carried many thousands of UncleSam's fighting men.
"A U-boat would certainly make a ten-strike if it sent a torpedo intothis craft," remarked Frank, as, after breakfast, the three friendssecured a point of vantage on the upper deck.
"He'd get the iron cross from the Kaiser, sure enough," replied Billy."It's so big a target that he could hardly miss it if he took a potshot at it."
"I don't think there's much danger," said Frank, as he glanced at theguns with their trained crews that guarded the liner fore and aft. "Ifa U-boat attacked us she'd be the more likely of the two to get sunk.These guns out-range anything that a submarine carries."
"To say nothing of the convoys," put in Bart. "It's all right toattack an unarmed merchant ship but it's a different thing when UnitedStates destroyers are on the job."
"Where are they?" said Billy, looking about over the broad expansewhich showed no trace of any other vessel.
"They'll meet us when we get further out," said Frank. "There will beno danger for a day or two yet. The U-boats are hugging the Englishcoast pretty tight."
"I don't think we ought to reckon too much on that," said Billy. "Youknow, a U-boat did cross the ocean a year or so ago and sank five shipsright off Nantucket. That's coming too close home for comfort."
"One swallow doesn't make a summer," replied Frank. "At that time wewere neutral and after the U-boat once slipped past the British fleetthere was nothing to stop it before it got to the American coast. Butyou bet it would be no cinch to do it now, with the United States navyon the job."
The next two days were fair and the sea smooth. The great liner reeledoff the miles with tremendous speed. As Billy had prophesied, the shipwas so steady that there was very little sea-sickness and there was somuch to be seen and done under these novel conditions that every wakinghour was filled with interest.
Two days later they picked up their convoy and all felt a verycomforting sense of security in the presence of the destroyers withtheir business-like air and wicked looking guns.
They kept pace with the liner, within easy reaching distance,occasionally exchanging signals, and keeping sleepless watch day andnight over the huge transport.
"The finest navy in the world!" cried Frank, with enthusiasm, as hiskindling eyes rested on these "bulldogs of the sea." "That's onebranch of the service where Uncle Sam has never fallen down. Man forman, gun for gun, and ship for ship, there's nothing in the world canbeat them. Just watch them clean out that U-boat nest when they onceget over there in force."
"They'll do to them what Decatur did to the Barbary pirates years ago,"said Bart. "Every other nation was paying tribute to them, but thatidea didn't make a hit with us and we went in and wiped them off theface of the earth--or rather the face of the water. And what we didonce, we can do again."
Frank's eyes had been idly roaming over the sea while they weretalking, but suddenly his gaze became fixed and he started to his feet.
"Did you see that, fellows?" he demanded, sharply.
"Where?" asked Billy
"I didn't see anything," said Bart.
"It looked like a flash of light on the water," explained Frank."There it is again. Great Scott, it's a periscope!"
Almost as he spoke, the forward guns on the liner roared theirchallenge, followed by the deeper bass of the guns from the nearestdestroyer.
In an instant there was great excitement, though without the slightesttrace of panic. The ship swung around in response to a bell from thebridge and began to zigzag in a bewildering fashion.
Then a great white furrow appeared in the sea and along that whiteninglane came hissing a monster torpedo. Nearer and nearer it came withlightning speed straight toward the vessel.
Had the liner kept its course the torpedo would have struck itamidships. As it was, it passed just back of the stern, missing it bynot more than a dozen feet.
The destroyers came racing like mad toward the spot from which thetorpedo had been launched. No trace of the submarine was visible butthe destroyers circled round and round the spot, dropping their deadlydepth bombs in the hope of striking their unseen foe.
Thousands of pairs of eyes watched for the result, while in theirexcitement their owners almost forgot to breathe.
Minutes passed and then a mighty cheer went up. For on the watersappeared a gradually widening smudge of oil on which floated bits ofwreckage that told their own story.
The U-boat had fired its last torpedo. One of the depth bombs hadsought it out in its invisible lair, battered in its sides, wrenchedopen its seams and sent its pirate crew to their last account. Forthat one boat, at least, the Kaiser's admirals would watch in vain.
"We got it!" yelled Billy Waldon exultingly.
"They can't always get away with it!" cried Bart, jubilantly.
"What did I tell you about our navy?" crowed Frank. "They can't putone over on Uncle Sam!"