CHAPTER TEN
_Steel Sharks_
The sun was a shimmering ball of brass that seemed to hang motionless inthe high heavens forever and ever. At least it seemed forever to Dawsonand Farmer, huddled down in the small rubber life raft that rose andfell with maddening monotonous regularity under the urging of the long,rolling swells of the Southwest Pacific. Brassy sun on high, all aboutthem, and even dancing up off the waters straight into their eyes.
"Oh, for a shack about six miles this side of the North Pole!" Davegroaned, and licked his cracked lips. "What I wouldn't give for a spotlike that, right now!"
"Yes, quite," Freddy answered listlessly. "And, of course, during thesix months of night they have up there. You know, Dave, I--I say! Look!Look, Dave! To starboard. Way out where the blasted sky meets theblasted water! Do you see something?"
For a couple of moments Dawson refused to turn his head. It seemed asthough he had spent his entire life in this raft squinting hopefully atimagined objects, only to be slapped in his burning, stinging face bylost hope. For twenty-six heart-crushing long hours Freddy and he hadbeen floating about in the raft on the crest of the Southwest Pacific.Twelve of those hours had been spent in the darkness of night, hoping,hoping, hoping that dawn's light would bring them a sight of one oftheir own planes, or one of the task force ships. Just to see somethingbesides sky, water, and darkness would have been something, even if ithadn't meant rescue for them. But it had been only sky, water, anddarkness. Then sky, and water again, and a blast furnace sun that seemedto pierce the top of their heads and burn their brains to a crisp.
But presently Dawson did turn his head, cup his hands to his tired eyes,and peer in the direction Freddy Farmer was pointing. At first he sawabsolutely nothing. Then, suddenly, his heart leaped high in his chest.There _was_ something way out there! Something on the surface of thewater, or just over it. He couldn't tell for sure. And he definitelycouldn't even guess at what it might be. The dazzling rays of the sundancing up off the surface of the water were like hot needle points thatdrew blood in his eyes. But there was something way out there on thehorizon. Yes, definitely something, but did it mean life, or death?
That last question pounded around and around inside Dave's head as hestrained his eyes at the distant horizon.
"Do you see it, Dave?" Freddy Farmer's voice broke into his thoughts.
"Yeah, I see it, but what?" he replied. "A ship, a plane, or maybe justsome kind of a bird?"
"My guess is a submarine," Freddy said. Then, an instant later, heexclaimed, "Yes, I'm sure of it! I can make out the conning tower. Goodgrief! Dave! _It's a Nazi U-boat!_"
"Huh?" Dave gasped, and sat up so violently that he rocked the raft."You're nuts, Freddy. This is the Pacific, not the Atlantic!"
"That may be!" the English youth shot right back at him. "But that thingout there is a Nazi U-boat, or I never saw one. See? It's coming towardus now. It must have sighted us!"
"Nuts again!" Dave replied. "We'd only be a speck at that distance,even in glasses. It just happens that it's heading our way."
Freddy shrugged and made a little gesture with one hand.
"Have it your own way, old thing," he said. "It's heading right for usjust the same. And if they haven't sighted us, they certainly will soon.There! See, Dave? Men are climbing out of the conning tower hatch ontothe deck!"
"Yeah, I see," Dave replied gloomily. "Which means they must be prettysure they've got this neck of the woods all to themselves. I wonder justhow far we've drifted in twenty-six hours? I wonder where the Carson is?And how the others made out? I--Oh, nuts! What good does it do to wonderabout anything right now? Heck! We couldn't change anything, anyway.That confounded seaplane, and the rats in her! Boy! Does that burn meup! I could kick myself all over this here Pacific Ocean!"
"Easy, old chap," Freddy said gently. "Don't let it get you down so,Dave. Good grief! What else could you have done?"
"Plenty!" Dawson said with an angry nod of his head. "I could have keptmy eye on the ball, for one thing, and not let them get so close theycould cut in with a few snap bursts. But no! I had to fall like a ton ofbrick for that moss-covered trick of getting a guy to look the otherway when you're about to slug him. So help me! I'll feel like a chumpfor that if I live to be a million."
"Well, go ahead then!" Freddy said in exasperation. "But you'redefinitely silly to feel as you do. Besides, what does it matter now?There's a U-boat coming toward us, and they certainly see us, now."
Dave looked and saw the U-boat now less than a mile away.
"Too bad we didn't strip off one of your guns and take it with us,Freddy," he said. "With a machine gun we could dust off quite a few ofthose apes on the deck there. And--Hey! What gives now? That's a U-boat,sure enough, Freddy. But those guys on deck aren't Jerries. They'reJaps, what I mean!"
"Yes, I know," the English youth replied. "Which proves the rumors thatI've heard: that Hitler has loaned some of his U-boats to the Japs, someof his old ones."
"Well, that one's not old," Dave declared, and stared hard at theapproaching undersea craft. "That's a new one, or I'll eat my shirt.That's a big baby, Freddy, very big. If it wasn't for the conning toweryou'd almost take it for a destroyer. No wonder we could spot it wayover on the horizon. And--Oh-oh! And _how_ they spot us! Look at therats!"
The last was caused by quick movements on the bow deck of theapproaching U-boat. A machine gun had been set up, and the man behind itwas training the gun on the floating raft. For a couple of secondsDave's heart came up to jam hard against his back teeth, as he halfexpected to see fire spurt out from the muzzle of the machine gun, andto feel the hot sting of bullets biting into his flesh.
The gun did not fire, however, and presently the U-boat was practicallyon top of the raft. Dark blue garbed Japs seemed to be swarming all overthe place, and Dave's hatred for them mounted to white fury as hewatched them, agate-eyed. Then suddenly the head and shoulders of abull-necked officer of the Nazi Navy appeared up out of the conningtower hatch. He put a small megaphone to his lips and bellowed the wordsacross the water.
"Make any effort to resist, and you will be killed where you are!" hethundered. "Be sensible! We are taking you aboard. I warn you to keepyour hands in sight!"
The man spoke almost perfect English, and both boys blinked in surprise.
"Yes, I would, if I only had a machine gun!" Dave grated under hisbreath. "Nothing I'd like better than to knock you and your little brownpals kicking."
"Shut up, Dave!" Freddy ordered him: "Stop trying to play blastedsoldier. You know perfectly well you wouldn't shoot, even if you didhave a gun. You'd be too thankful for the chance to get out of thisraft, just as you are now. And you know it!"
"Okay, okay, let me up; I'm all cut!" Dave grunted at him. "Just thesame, pal, I never did care much for U-boat rides."
"Well, I'm afraid we have no choice in the matter, old thing," Freddysighed, and let the subject drop.
The U-boat was close to the bobbing raft now. And just as a matter ofprecaution both Dave and Freddy made very sure that they kept theirhands in full view of all those aboard the undersea craft. The two Japsbehind the deck mounted machine gun leered at them over the bead sight,and it was easy to see they wouldn't mind at all an order to pull thetrigger. No such order was given, however, and a couple of moments laterone of the Jap sailors caught hold of the raft with a boat hook, pulledit close, and the two youths clambered up onto the wet deck of theU-boat.
No sooner had they climbed up on deck than a couple of Jap Navy officersmoved in on them quickly, and searched for weapons. They found none, andwere obviously disappointed. Then a shrill order in sing-song Japanesesnapped the look of disappointment from their slant-eyed faces. Theygrunted at the two boys and then nodded toward the conning tower bridgewhere the Nazi commander of the craft stood waiting. They went over andup the short companion ladder with a couple of Japs stickingconveniently at their heels. They halted in front of the bull-neckedGerman, who eyed them as though he'd never se
en a couple of white men inhis life before. Which, of course, was quite possible, in view of thefact he was of German birth.
Then, suddenly, he exploded in a booming voice that almost blew the boysover.
"What's the name of your carrier?" he thundered. "And how long ago wereyou shot down?"
Dawson hesitated a moment, and then let him have it. In a very meek andhumble voice, too.
"We weren't assigned to any special carrier, sir," he said. "We flew offany one of the five of them. And we've been in the water for about aweek now. No, call it an even eight days."
The Nazi's eyes widened and he blinked them hard.
"What's this?" he cried.
Before he could get his breath to say anything else, one of the Japnaval officers stepped forward.
"He lies, _Kommandant_," he said in perfect German. "All American pigslie. The United States have not five carriers left in all of their navy.Besides, we know these two were shot down by our plane yesterday."
The two words "our plane" had all of the effect on Dawson of a swiftpunch to the jaw. Impulsively he raced his eyes along the length of theU-boat, and particularly the forward end. It was then that he spottedtelltale objects that told him the truth, and cleared up a little of themystery of yesterday's meeting in the air with that strange seaplane. Inshort, he saw a plane hoist secured to the port side of the forwarddeck. It was fastened down in a horizontal position, but it could beraised upright at a moment's notice. He also saw that just about theentire forward deck consisted of two hatch covers that could be foldedback to make a good sized opening in the deck. And although he could notlook down through the steel plates to what was below, he had the verydefinite feeling that stowed neatly in the forward hold of the U-boatwas that strange type seaplane with its wings folded back.Airplane-carrying submarines were nothing new to Dawson, or to FreddyFarmer, either. But it was a bit of a shock to realize that they hadbeen shot down by such a craft. And, also, that they had been rescued bythe mother U-boat of the plane.
"Yes, yes, I know!" Dawson heard the Nazi commander grunt impatiently atthe Jap. "Of course our plane shot them down. But you do not know theseAmerican dogs as I do. Let them lie long enough and before they realizeit they are telling you the truth. You will see what I mean. Well, takethem to my quarters, and wait. This is a bad hour to remain on thesurface too long. We will submerge at once."
The Nazi had spoken in German, and both Dawson and Freddy Farmerunderstood him perfectly. However, both were very careful not to letthat fact show in their faces. As a matter of fact, they staredpuzzle-eyed at the Nazi and then looked enquiringly at each other. TheNazi saw them do that and laughed harshly.
"Do not worry, swine," he spoke in harsh English. "When the Fuehrer isin your White House all of you American dogs will be taught to speakGerman. There will be but one language then. German!"
The Nazi nodded violently, and then snapped a glittering eye at the Japnaval officer as though inviting him to take issue with his words. TheJap, however, refused to take issue. He simply smiled politely and thenmotioned for Dave and Freddy to climb over the lip of the conning towerhatch and start down inside the boat. When they reached the bottom ofthe conning tower ladder which ended in the central control room, andnerve center of the U-boat, the Jap didn't give them so much as half achance to look around. He had his gun out then, and he jabbed them bothhard in the back and pointed aft. The pain from the jab madefirecrackers go off in Dave's brain. And for one crazy instant he wastempted to wheel around and drive both fists into that slant-eyed,hateful face. Common sense, however, came to his rescue instantly and hechecked the urge and went stumbling along in step with Freddy Farmer.
When they were about half-way aft along the narrow companionway, the Japhalted them and more or less pushed and shoved them into a fairly goodsized cabin. The hundred and one different smells of the insides of asubmarine were just as heavy and noticeable there as they had been inthe control room. However, Dawson could not help gasping impulsively atthe luxuriousness of the fittings and furnishings. He had been in otherNazi U-boats, but never in one in which the commander had fitted himselfout so proudly as this one. For a second he wondered if the Nazis hadbeen forced to "doll up" their U-boats to get commanders and crews totake them out on their hazardous voyages. On second thought, though, hedecided that all this was simply a Nazi touch to impress their comradesin cold murder, the Japanese.
Just the same, the cabin was certainly well appointed, and Dave secretlyhoped the Nazi would question them for quite some time so that he wouldhave a good chance to relax and get a lot of the salt water and sunstiffness out of his joints. But he experienced a very rude awakeningeven as he was expressing that hope to himself and starting to sit downin one of the fancy chairs. The Jap's gun came out fast and cracked himhard on the side of the head.
"Dog!" the slant-eyed one screamed. "How dare you seat yourself in thepresence of an officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy! Stand on yourfeet. Over there, by the door. Move a muscle and I will take greatestpleasure in shooting you."
With a tremendous effort Dawson forced back the surging, blazing angerthat rose up in his throat to choke him. Then he joined Freddy by thedoor and stood there with his gaze fixed hard and unwinking on the Jap.The little brown rat sneered and leered, and tried to stare Dawson down.He didn't even get to first base, though. And presently it was he wholowered his eyes. And so that was the picture as there came clankingsounds and roared out orders from various directions inside the U-boat.A moment later the craft trembled and shook from end to end. And Davefelt the deck under his feet slant as the craft dived and went underwater.
Three, four, five minutes ticked by, and then the Nazi commander pushedthrough the door inside. He seemed surprised to see Dawson and Farmerstanding stiff as a couple of wooden Indians by the door. He glancedsharply at the Jap, and made sounds under his breath. Then he went overand dropped his big frame into a chair, and sat regarding the two youthsout of wide set eyes that held nothing but the look of death in them.