CHAPTER XXIII
UNDER SPECIAL ORDERS
It was like bombarding a whale with bomb lances. One after another theshells from the destroyer's guns shrieked over the sea to fall aroundthe more sluggishly manoeuvring U-boat.
The captain of the submarine handled his craft with skill; but hisgunners were poor marksmen. They kept both the U-boat's deckgunssmoking; but the shots went wild.
Torpedoes could not be used against the destroyer, for the latter wassteaming too swiftly. Around and around she went, and each time shefinished a lap the circle had narrowed.
The spectators on the revenue cutter were highly interested. Theyclimbed upon the upperworks and cheered and yelled in their excitement.At last a shell from the destroyer dropped fairly upon the deck of theU-boat, just abaft the conning tower.
The submarine rocked, dipped, and seemed about to sink. The helm of thedestroyer was changed instantly and she shot straight for her quarry.
"She'll sink her! She's going down!" yelled Al Torrance, clinging to astay beside Whistler, as the cutter bobbed through the rather choppyseas.
But the Germans had no desire for a glorious death. Up went the whiteflag, and the men on her deck put up their hands, signifying that theyhad surrendered. Probably they were already crying "_Kamerad!_"
The destroyer did not even drop a boat to send aboard a crew. Shesteamed right up beside the submarine, put out a ladder for her captain,and then sent a hawser aboard for the German crew to fasten. She wouldtow her prize to port without risking any of her own crew aboard thewabbly undersea boat.
When the cutter drew near, her ship's company cheered and jeered thebluejackets on the destroyer with good-natured enthusiasm. The destroyerwas then steaming away with the U-boat in tow.
"Something's fouled your patent log!" yelled one seaman aboard thecutter.
"Hey, there, garby!" shouted another. "What's that the cat brought in?"
The crew of the destroyer, evidently mightily swelled with pride,refused to reply to these scoffing remarks.
As long as the twilight held the cutter steamed into the east andsouth. By dark the destroyer and her tow were out of sight. The cutterbegan to burn occasional lights. Then the wireless chattered again.
"Hurrah, boys!" whispered Whistler to his three mates. "I believe the_Kennebunk_ is near."
Nor was he mistaken in this supposition. The night was dark, the starswere overcast, merely a fitful light played upon the surface of the sea.
The horizon ahead was quite indistinguishable from the water itself. Butat last a faint glowing point appeared upon it. Ensign MacMasters andthe commander of the cutter showed excitement as they watched this spotthrough their night glasses.
"Is it a star?" asked Frenchy.
"A star your grandmother!" snorted Torry. "That's a ship."
"A big steamship under forced draft," added Whistler. "And I believe itis the _Kennebunk_."
It was the glow above her smokestacks that they saw. Within half an hourthe fact that a huge steam craft was storming across the cutter's coursecould not be doubted.
Mr. MacMasters gave some sharp orders to his men. The latter had nothingwith them but the water-shrunk garments they stood in; so it took but amoment for Mr. Mudge to line them up properly along the rail.
The great battleship began to slow down when the cutter was at leastthree miles from her. Otherwise she would have passed, and the revenuecraft would have been a long time catching up.
The cutter was run in to the side of the towering hull of thesuperdreadnaught. The port ladder was down. A number of the watch ondeck were strung along the rail, and the officers did not forbid theircheering the members of the wrecked tender's crew.
"Welcome home again, Mr. MacMasters!" was the greeting of the officer ofthe watch as the ensign led his party up the ladder.
"And mighty glad we are to get here," declared Ensign MacMasters.
The boys and men scrambled aboard and bade good-bye cheerfully thoughgratefully to the cutter's crew. The latter craft turned on her heel andshot away toward the distant coast.
Already the huge battleship was under way again. She was running withfew lights. And where she was running was a question that even themembers of the crew the boys put the question to could not answer.
It was generally known that Captain Trevor had received orders bywireless that had changed the plan of the cruise entirely. Instead ofrunning back up the Atlantic coast, they had put to sea.
It was the next day before the _Kennebunk's_ company in general knewthat she was bound first for the Azores. That meant a European cruise,without a doubt. All the "old timers" were agreed upon that.
It was finally rumored about the ship that the report of the_Kennebunk's_ cruise to the southward, and the score of her gun crews attarget practice, together with her good luck in sinking a Germansubmarine with the first shot ever fired from her guns, had so impressedthe Department that she was to join the European squadron under AdmiralSims at once.
"There's a chance for you boys to see some real action," declared one ofthe masters-at-arms. "If the Hun comes out of Kiel, we'll be there tosay 'How-do!' to him."
The boys who had been absent from the battleship for so long found,however, that the spiritual atmosphere of the crew was not much changed.There were still a lot of "croakers" as Torry called them.
"They are ghost-ridden, as sure as you're born, Whistler," Torrydeclared. "Somebody has heard that clock ticking again. It doesn't seemto be at work all the time. Just now and then. 'The death watch' theycall it."
"Stop it!" ordered Whistler. "The less said the soonest mended aboutsuch things aboard ship. We boys don't believe such foolishness, do we?"
"How about the old witch's prophecy?" asked Torry wickedly. "Suppose weshould tell these garbies about them?"
"Don't you dare!" cried Whistler.
That very morning, after sick call, he was ordered to appear beforeCaptain Trevor in the commander's office, and there found assembledEnsign MacMasters and several of the other officers of the ship with thecommander.
"Morgan," said Captain Trevor, "let me hear about your finding of thispaper Mr. MacMasters has brought to our attention. There seems to besomething of moment in it in reference to the _Kennebunk_."
Ensign MacMasters put a translation of the torn letter into the youngfellow's hand. The letter had been so mutilated that it was impossible;to make any exact translation of it. But here were extracts that stoodout plainly:
"_. . . success of your water-wheel bomb. Congratulations._
"_. . . from Headquarters an order to_ . . .
"_. . . If it equals your former . . ._
"_. . . clockwork arrangement that may raise your name as an inventor to the nth power. The Ken---- . . ._
"_. . . shall hear of her destruction at the time appointed._
"_. . . for the German Fatherland._"
"I am told that you, Morgan, have some knowledge of the dastardly workof this spy, Franz Linder. Is it so?" asked Captain Trevor suggestively.
"Oh, sir!" cried the young fellow, in excitement, "I believe I know whatis referred to here by Linder's correspondent, as 'the water-wheelbomb.' That is what he blew up the Elmvale dam with!"
"Do you think, from what the woman on the island said, that there issome plot afoot against the _Kennebunk_?" went on the commander.
"It's referred to right here!" declared the excited Whistler. "This'clockwork' thing. Oh, Mr. MacMasters!" he added, turning abruptly tothe ensign. "You know some of the crew, before we left to carry poorGrant to the hospital, were bothering about a sound they had heard onthe lower deck? Remember Seven Knott's ghost?"
"Right!" declared the ensign. "I had forgotten it, Captain Trevor," headded. "Something about a clock ticking."
"I have heard it myself," Whistler said eagerly. "And the boys say theyhave been hearing it, off and on, while we were gone."
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p; "Do you two mean to intimate that there is a time bomb, or some suchinfernal machine, aboard this ship?" demanded Captain Trevor, incontemptuous amazement.
"Look at this, sir," urged Whistler so earnestly that he forgot hisstation. "'_. . . clockwork arrangement that may raise your name as aninventor to the nth power._' That certainly means something. And thatnoise below does sound something like a clock."
"It seems ridiculous," stated the commander of the _Kennebunk_. "And yetwe must not refuse to believe that the secret agents of Germany are atwork in the most impossible places. If they could sink this great, newvessel in mid-ocean! Mr. Smith," to his first lieutenant, "have thatpart of the ship searched. Find out what causes the sound which has beenheard before you make your report. We'll investigate this matter to thevery bottom."