CHAPTER XV
THE BIG GUN SPEAKS
The thing the lookout had spied bobbing in the sea was not exactly inthe wake of the battleship, for those who rushed to the port rail couldsee it quite well. It wabbled about in a most eccentric way, as thoughthe submarine attached to it had risen just as the _Kennebunk_ passedand had received the full force of her swell.
"Jingo! that's a funny lookin' periscope," drawled one second-classseaman, a new recruit, craning his long neck to see over the heads ofthe group which Frenchy and Ikey had joined.
"What did you think they'd look like?" demanded another.
"Something like a smokestack with a curlycue on the end of it," was thereply.
Frenchy and Ikey were giggling immeasurably. The former said: "Isa Boppcouldn't beat that, could he?"
"Oi, oi!" sighed Ikey ecstatically. "A periscope like a smokestack!"
But more than this new recruit aboard the _Kennebunk_ began to doubtthe validity of the bobbing thing in the water astern. The bigbattleship was being swerved to bring the port broadside to bear uponthe now distant object. The bugle rang for stations. The sudden activityof the whole ship's company was inspiring.
Of a sudden there came a hail from the other masthead where two lookoutsstood in the cage with glasses.
"On deck, sir! Submarine just awash on the starboard quarter, sir!"
The cry was in truth a startling one. Whistler and Torry, who had sprungwith their mates to the guns of the second turret, were on the starboardside. A second submarine? Why, it seemed the ship was being surroundedby these wasps of the sea.
A sharp whistle sounded in the turret. The officer in charge sprang tothe tube.
"Ready for deflection and range? Stand by!" was the order.
"Aye, aye, sir!" responded the turret captain.
Ammunition boxes appeared as though by magic and were broken open. Plugswere swung back and the gun bores were examined. The starboard gun wasquickly charged. Whistler and Torry both worked on her. They stood back,the gunner standing with his finger on the button of the trigger.
"That submarine's going down!" gasped one watcher. "We'll lose her."
The next moment the executive officer's report for deflection and rangecame through the tube. Then: "Are you on?"
"On, sir!"
"Fire!"
It seemed that almost instantaneously with the roar and recoil of thehuge gun the shell burst beside the sinking submarine. The explosion wasterrific; the whole hull of the undersea boat heaved up, exposing itslength for a few seconds. Then the sea-shark sank, going down like ashot.
"A hit! A hit!" yelled the men in turret two.
A cheer burst from the throats of the whole ship's company. Those whohad not seen it, realized that the first gun fired in earnest by the_Kennebunk_ had reached its target.
"The old ship's bound to have good luck!" shouted a boatswain. "This isonly the beginning! We'll sweep the seas of every Hun!"
The officers did not try to quell the cheering. The satisfaction andpride of all was something too fine to be quenched.
The battleship swerved again and ran across the track of the sunkenU-boat. Bubbling up from the depths were blobs of black oil which lazilyspread and broke upon the sea's surface.
The German submarine was done for. Her crew were buried with her at thebottom of the sea. The cheering ceased when this fact was realized.
"The poor square-heads!" muttered one fellow near Frenchy and IkeyRosenmeyer. "They couldn't help it, I s'pose. They say they are driveninto the subs. Aren't no volunteers called for."
"Where's that other sub?" demanded another. "Has she sunk, too?"
Frenchy and Ikey began to grin again. One of the boatswains said: "I betthat warn't no submarine ship at all. She's a joke. There! We're goingto circle around and hunt her up."
"Do you think the Fritzies set something afloat to fool us?" demandedanother man in surprise. "They're cute rascals, aren't they?"
"Not very cute just now," returned somebody, dryly. "They're food forthe fishes."
"Just the same, if we'd got our attention completely fixed upon thishere floating joker, the real sub might have sneaked up within range andsent us a lover's note in the shape of a torpedo."
Frenchy and Ikey began to look at each other with some worriment ofcountenance. Later it was reported that the first "periscope" could notbe found. The two mischief-makers were greatly relieved.
"Say! that wasn't any joke," Ikey whispered to the Irish lad. "Oi, oi!S'pose they had grappled for it and brought it aboard and found"_Kennebunk_" stamped on those iron belayin' pins we used for weights?"
"Don't say a word!" urged Frenchy.
"You bet I won't!" agreed Ikey. "Not even to Whistler and Al. We comepretty near putting our foot in it that time, Frenchy."
The Irish lad agreed warmly: "By St. Patrick's piper that played thelast snake out of Ireland!" he reiterated, "no more practical jokes,Ikey. This is a lesson. And say!"
"What is it?"
"I left my knife down there in that room. I've got to go down after itbefore it's found and the master-at-arms asks questions."
"All right. I'll go down and watch out for you," declared the loyalIkey.
The target ship was being signaled again and she was coming back. At thefirst alarm of a submarine in the vicinity she had started coastward.
The wireless was snapping. Messages were being sent out announcing thesinking of the U-boat and warning other craft, especially merchantvessels, of the possibility of other undersea boats being in thevicinity.
It was proved, at least, that the Germans had sent more submarines tothis side of the ocean. The visit of the _Deutschland_ and of U-53 toAmerica before the United States got into the war, had been in thenature of a warning as to what the Hun could really do. Now perhaps asquadron of U-boats was to be sent across to prey upon American shippingor to shell helpless seaboard towns.
The two younger Seacove boys, who had come so near committing a hugepiece of folly by their small practical joke, slipped down to the lowerdeck again to recover Frenchy's knife. If it should be found by themaster-at-arms, or was handed to him, it would go into the lucky bag;and then Frenchy would have to explain how he lost it in that unusedcompartment of the ship if he wished to get back the knife again.
Just as they got to the passage abaft the compartment in question, Ikeyuttered a warning "hist!" and drew Frenchy back. Somebody was coming outof the room in which they built the dummy that had so fooled the ship'scompany.
"Who is it?" gasped Michael.
"Oi, oi!" murmured Ikey, peering again, "It's Seven Knott."
"Shucks! I'm not afraid of him," said Frenchy stepping forth into thepassage. The next moment he cried out: "What's the matter, Hansie?"
The petty officer was plainly frightened. He turned with rolling eyesand a pasty countenance to the two boys.
"What you seen?" demanded Ikey, likewise disturbed by the pettyofficer's appearance.
"No--nothin'," murmured the frightened Seven Knott. "But--but it's aghost."
"What's a ghost?" demanded the boys together, and although they did notbelieve in ghosts, they could not help being shaken a bit by SevenKnott's earnestness.
"It's what I heard," whispered the older man, still trembling.
"Oi, oi!" exclaimed Ikey Rosenmeyer suddenly. "Was it a clock ticking?"
"That's it! That's what it sounded like. But there's no clock there,"the boatswain's mate said. "I couldn't find anything. It's all aboutyou--in the air! I tell you it's a ghost, a ghost-clock. 'The deathwatch.' They say you hear it on board a ship when she's doomed to sink.Something bad is going to happen to the _Kennebunk_," finished SevenKnott earnestly.
"Crickey!" cried Frenchy under his breath. "Something bad just happenedto that German U-boat. Maybe this death watch you talk about wascounting out the submarine, not the battleship."
But Hertig was not to be easily pacified. He was superstitious anyway.He believed that he could not be drowned hims
elf, for instance, becausehe had been born with a caul over his face.
Frenchy went into the room, presumably to listen for the "tick-tock"sound; but actually to find his knife. He came out with the latter inhis pocket; but he also showed a rather pale face and he had not much tosay until Seven Knott went away.
The latter crept away, plainly in great trouble of spirit. Ikey askedhis chum:
"Did you hear it again?"
"Ye-es," admitted Frenchy. "It does sound queer. What do you suppose itcan be?"
"Don't know. Let's tell Whistler," said Ikey, who had a deal ofconfidence in Morgan.
"That's all right. But don't tell him anything about our being in thatroom before. Remember, Ikey, we don't know a livin' thing about thatfirst periscope the lookouts spied."
"Sure I won't tell," agreed the other. "It wasn't such a good joke afterall, was it, Frenchy?"
And Frenchy agreed with a solemn nod of his head.