CHAPTER VIII
DISABLED
Sudden noises at night, particularly when accompanied by a tremorand by vibrations that shake one to his innermost being, are, inthemselves, terrifying. When to that is added the additional sourceof danger of the occurrence taking place at sea on board a crowdedtransport and the possibilities for tragic happenings from this source,fears may well be multiplied.
And yet, such was the discipline and foresightedness on board the_Sherman_ that the panic and terror were only momentary. No soonerdid Ned, Bob, and Jerry, together with many of their comrades, findthemselves stumbling about in the dark with the noise of the explosionstill ringing in their ears, than they were aware of signals beingsounded throughout the ship.
The signals were those for instant falling in on the part of thesoldiers, and indicated that they were to take the quarters assigned tothem, each man nearest the boat in which he was to have a place shoulddestruction menace the ship.
And then, while excited cries were issuing from many throats and whensome, in the confusion, forgot what the bugle calls meant and whilestill others were instinctively terrified in the darkness, lights beganto gleam. Some of the illumination came from oil lanterns provided foran emergency to the dynamo lighting system of the ship. Other glowsflitted from portable electric flash-torches that many of the officersand men carried, but the greater light came from the auxiliary storagebattery system, which was switched on as soon as the proper officerfound that the big, whirring dynamo was out of commission.
“Fall in! Fall in! Take your places at the boats!” cried the officers,rapidly getting the situation well in hand. “Be ready for the order toabandon ship!”
And then perfect order came out of confusion. No longer did thesoldiers rush madly about, crying out to know what had happened. Nolonger was the pall of blackness hiding man from the sight of man. Oncemore wonderful discipline was uppermost.
“What’s it all about?” asked Bob of Ned, as he and his chum followedJerry to their appointed station.
“Your guess is as good as the next man’s,” said Jerry. “Let’s get toour boat first, and talk afterward.”
They stumbled upward and onward in the midst of the crowd, gropingtheir way, for the lighting system, though sufficiently good to enablethem to see to progress, was not as bright as the regular one. As theystumbled on toward their boat-station a voice of authority cried:
“Wounded men first in the boats!”
“Right!” sang out a number of hearty voices, and it was evident therewould be no terrible scenes should it become necessary to abandon ship.And this dire thought was uppermost in the minds of all.
It was also evident that the _Sherman_ had received an injury muchmore serious than the previous one that had sent her back to the dockfor repairs to the machinery which had been so quickly made. She hadcome to a stop now in the darkness on the broad ocean, and was slowlyheaving to the swell. There was also a slight list to one side, itscause unknown to the soldiers who, in response to the commands of theirofficers, were moving in orderly array to safety stations.
“Well, our adventures are keeping up,” said Jerry in a low voice to histwo chums when they had reached their boat station and stood waitingfor further orders. “But I didn’t quite bargain for this.”
“Me, either,” commented Ned.
“Do you think the old boat will go down?” asked Bob.
“No telling,” Jerry answered. “It looks pretty serious, or theywouldn’t get us all up here this way. They’re bringing up the woundednow.”
As he spoke it could be seen that doctors, nurses, and stretcher-bearerswere appearing on deck with the casualty cases. And to the credit of theunfortunate ones be it said that they remained quiet, and some evenlaughed and joked, though they must have known, in case of the necessityfor abandoning ship and taking to the small boats, that their chances ofbeing saved were infinitely smaller than those of able-bodied men. Butthey were Uncle Sam’s boys, and that is enough to say.
Naturally, on all sides, the questions asked were:
“What happened?”
“What caused it?”
“Did a sub attack us?”
And so insistent were these queries, and so vital was it to have someinformation given out, that when at last all the wounded had beenbrought up and every man was at his station the officer commanding thetroops addressed them.
“As you all know, there has been an unfortunate accident,” he said.“The full extent is not yet known, but I am authorized by CaptainMunson to say that the ship is in no immediate danger. We areprotected by a number of water-tight bulkheads, and, so far, only onecompartment is flooded. This has been closed off and we expect to keepon.”
A cheer greeted this announcement. Holding up his hand for silence, thecolonel, standing in the light of a ship lantern, went on:
“As you have heard ordered, the wounded will be first placed in theboats in case we have to abandon ship. Others will follow as directed.It is of prime necessity that every man obey implicitly his superiorofficers. The first to disobey will be instantly shot! You know whatthat means!” and his voice itself was like the click of a gun.
“It may be that we shall not have to take to the boats,” the colonelresumed. “An investigation of the damage done is now being made. As faras can be learned it was caused by an explosion of one of the smallboilers. What caused the boiler to explode we do not yet know. But forthe present every one must stand at attention and be ready for quickdisembarkation.
“There have been men injured in the engine room, and they will taketheir places with our wounded in the boats first!” the colonel added,and his words were greeted with a cheer, which told him and the otherofficers that there would be no disgraceful scenes at the end in casethe end should be a tragic one.
“Now you know as much as I do,” the colonel concluded. “We may be onlyslightly damaged, and we may be greatly so. We shall know in a littlewhile. In the meantime, stand by!”
Another cheer punctuated the closing remarks, and then followed anerve-racking time. There was nothing to be done except to wait for theconclusion of the investigation of the ship’s officers. They were belownow, seeking to learn how badly damaged were the craft’s vitals.
“Well, this is worse and more of it,” remarked Bob, as he began to feelabout him to ascertain if he had as many of his possessions as he hadbeen able to gather up in the haste.
“It may not be so bad,” declared Jerry. “We aren’t a great way from thecoast, for we haven’t made any wonderful speed so far. I believe we canget back.”
“What! In the small boats?” asked Ned.
“Maybe. Or the _Sherman_ may limp back under her own steam.”
“Not the way she’s listing now,” declared Ned. “Say!” he went onearnestly, “I wish we’d told some one about seeing that peppery chapwith the black box leaving a trail of a fuse smell behind him.”
“Oh, don’t get to imagining things!” cautioned Jerry. “There areenough real happenings as it is. Stand by--that’s the order!”
“But we might have prevented this,” Ned persisted.
“Nonsense!” declared his tall chum. “This was an engine-room accident.Probably they were carrying too much steam. Lucky it wasn’t any worse.”
“We don’t know how bad it is,” remarked Bob. “Seems to me the lightsare getting dimmer; aren’t they?”
“Maybe they’re shutting some off to save the current,” replied Jerry.“They switched on the storage battery, I heard some one say. They aregetting dimmer, that’s a fact.”
As he spoke the incandescent lights began gradually fading away. Thefilaments, from a white-hot glow, turned red, and then went out, asa glowing match slowly loses its illumination. All that lighted thescenes on the ship’s decks now were the emergency oil lanterns and anoccasional pocket electric torch.
“Let no one be alarmed!” called the colonel. “The lights are beingturned off to save the battery current for the wireless in case we
haveto call for assistance. It will soon be morning.”
“If they have to depend for wireless calls on a storage battery itwon’t last very long,” declared Ned.
“Let’s wait and see,” advised Jerry.
They all stood waiting for the result of the investigation of thedamage done to the troopship. And as they waited in the semi-darknessmany thoughts came to each man. It was a time to try one’s soul.
Finally there was a commotion near a group of officers, which includedthe commanding colonel of the troops on the _Sherman_. The ship’scaptain was seen speaking to the colonel by Ned, Bob, and Jerry. Andso close were the lads to the scene of the consultation that theyoverheard something of what was said.
One word, among the others, seemed to stand out as if written inletters of fire. And that one word was:
“Disabled!”