CHAPTER XXI.
AT SEA AGAIN.
Edwards, also about to leap overboard at that moment, paused, raised hisrevolver, took careful aim at Davis and fired. Davis uttered a hoarsecry, dropped his own weapon, and crumpled up on the deck. Edwards smiledgrimly, dropped his revolver and leaped lightly into the water.
He came up a moment later beside Jack, who was treading water while heawaited him.
"Which way, sir?" asked Edwards. "You know where we are. I don't."
"This," said Jack, "is the Thames. We'll have no trouble making shore.Follow me."
Edwards did so and a few moments later both stood dripping on land.
"Now where to, sir?" asked Edwards.
"We'll have to hunt up Lord Hastings. He's gone to make his report tothe British authorities. By inquiring a bit we should have no troublefinding him."
The lad was right. A subordinate officer directed them to the quartersof General Hamilton, where Jack felt sure he would find his commander.At the door of the general's quarters an orderly halted them.
"Is Lord Hastings here?" demanded Jack.
"He is closeted with the general," was the reply.
"Well," said Jack, "you tell him his first officer is here and wants tosee him immediately."
The orderly hesitated, but a second look at Jack and he did ascommanded. A moment later Lord Hastings dashed out, closely followed byFrank.
"What's wrong?" he demanded.
"Nothing, only that we have been chased off the submarine," replied Jackquietly. "Davis headed a conspiracy to capture the vessel and I wasunable to act quickly enough. Edwards and I escaped."
"And O'Brien and McDonald?" inquired Lord Hastings.
"Dead!"
"How about Davis and the others? Weren't you able to account for any ofthem?"
"A few, sir," returned Jack briefly, "but Davis----"
"I think I got Davis, sir," Edwards interrupted quietly. "I took a shotat him just before I went over the side. He went down."
"I'm glad to hear that," returned Lord Hastings. "He is too dangerous aman to be at large. Besides, without him, the Germans will hardly getvery far."
He turned to General Hamilton, who had followed him from his room, andadded: "If you'll be so kind as to give me a detail of ten men, sir,I'll go and see about this matter. It may be that we can recapture thevessel."
General Hamilton acted quickly. He summoned an orderly and commandedthat ten men be placed at Lord Hastings' disposal immediately. The menappeared on the run a moment later and Lord Hastings led them toward theriver, where they all embarked in a small motorboat and headed for thespot where they had left the submarine.
But there was no submarine to be found. It had disappeared.
Lord Hastings uttered an exclamation of chagrin.
"They've gone," he said. "Edwards, I guess you didn't hurt Davis verybad. I don't suppose there was a sailor aboard who could navigate thevessel. Davis probably could."
"I'm sorry, sir," returned Edwards.
"So am I," returned his commander. "We'll have to catch that fellow, andit is likely to prove a hard job. However, the sooner we get after himthe better."
"And what do you intend to do, sir?" asked Jack.
"We'll take another of these vessels and put to sea again," declared hiscommander. "We may come up with him sooner than we expect. But--we'lltake a British crew this time."
It was now after daylight and Lord Hastings set about his preparationswith vigor. Before evening the lads found themselves aboard one of theGerman submarines that had been captured and brought to the surface. Thevessel was manned with a full complement of British underwater sailors.Edwards was among them.
"We'll go down the river immediately," said Lord Hastings, after a tourof inspection of the vessel, "and when we are at sea we'll fly theGerman flag. None of our submarines looks anything like this craft, soif we come up with the enemy we will be taken for a German. You maysteam at ten knots, Mr. Templeton."
Jack gave the order and the vessel moved down the river.
Shortly after nightfall the submarine, U-6, was proceeding into theNorth Sea, for it was there that Lord Hastings believed he would be morelikely to encounter Davis and the U-16.
"Besides," he explained, "our usefulness is not at an end in the matterof obtaining information from the Germans. We may put into Ostend againif necessary."
All during the night, although Frank, Jack or Lord Hastings wascontinually on the bridge, they did not encounter anything that lookedlike an enemy ship, although the U-6 dived several times when it drewclose to a British ship of war--one of the blockading fleet Had thesubmarine approached too closely it would have drawn a shot from thebattleship, whose commander could not possibly have known that theGerman submersible carried a British crew in the service of King George.
The following afternoon, having traveled far toward the east, they wereto have an adventure.
Moving slowly along, and presenting the appearance, from a distance, ofa little speck upon the surface of the sea, the U-6 continued toward theeast. Frank had taken the bridge half an hour before and now wasstudying a faint smudge on the eastern horizon. A moment later and asecond smudge appeared and then a third, to be followed almostimmediately by a fourth.
"Strange!" he muttered. "Seems to be coming from the direction ofHeligoland. Battleships all right, but the question is, British orGerman? Must be the latter, though how they figure to run the Britishblockade is more than I know. However, I haven't heard that any of ourvessels are this close to Heligoland. It's too dangerous on account ofthe German mines."
He summoned Jack, who also gazed curiously at the smoke for somemoments; but even while Jack gazed, the dim outline of a largebattleship came into sight. Soon a second appeared and then a third.
"Must be German," said Jack. "Call Lord Hastings."
Frank did so and soon the commander of the U-6 appeared on deck.
Lord Hastings wasted no time in fixing the identity of the approachingvessels.
"Germans," he said briefly.
"Yes; but where are they going?" Jack wanted to know.
"Probably intend another raid on the British coast," returned LordHastings. "By the time they are in waters patrolled by our ships it willbe dark, and they hope to pass them in the night. You haven't forgottenthe raid on Scarborough and Hartlepool, have you?"
"No, I haven't," said Jack. "But I don't figure they would have thetemerity to try another."
"They seem to have temerity enough to try anything," declared Frank."However, I guess it's up to us to stop this raid."
"Right you are, Frank," said Lord Hastings quietly. "It's up to us."
"And how do you figure we are going to get all four of them?" demandedJack.
"Well, with luck we might do it," replied his commander. "However, itwould hardly be necessary for that. If we can sink two the others willturn and run."
"And shall we remain on the surface, sir?" asked Jack.
"No. We'll submerge until we are close to them. Then we can come upsafely enough, for they'll believe us friends. We can sink one and getdown again in time. Then, taking our calculations as to where they willbe, we can come up again and have a try at another. We may as wellsubmerge now."
Jack gave the order, and a few minutes later the U-6 was beneath thewater, not even her periscope being allowed to show. Here she remaineduntil Lord Hastings believed the German battleships had approached closeenough to be in range of the submarine's torpedoes. Then she came to thesurface again.
Lord Hastings had gauged the distance accurately. The German ships werenow hard by and steaming swiftly forward. As the U-6 sprang up frombeneath the water, there was some excitement aboard the German vessels,which soon quieted, however, as the Germans made out the lines of thevessel and caught the German flag with their glass.
"We're safe enough," declared Jack. "They take us for one ofthemselves."
"Much to their sorrow," said Frank.
"All ready below?"
demanded Lord Hastings.
"All ready, sir," replied Jack.
"Good. Down with both of you then. I'll be down the moment the firsttorpedo has been fired, and we'll have to submerge as quickly aspossible."
The lads obeyed Lord Hastings' command and took their positions.
"Ready with No. 1 torpedo," came Lord Hastings' command from above.
"Ready, sir," returned Jack, after a quick scrutiny.
"Ready with No. 3 torpedo," shouted Lord Hastings.
"Ready, sir," said Jack, and then exclaimed in an aside to Frank:
"By Jove! He's going to try and get two of them at once."
And such, indeed, was Lord Hastings' intention. The German battleshipswere so close together that Lord Hastings believed he could strike adouble blow successfully and with perfect safety to his own vessel.
Signal flags now were displayed at the masthead of the foremost Germanbattleship and Lord Hastings knew that some answer was expected from thesubmarine.
"Well, I can't decipher your signals," he muttered, "but I can give yousome kind of a reply--which I don't suppose will be much to yourliking."
He turned and gave a command to Jack; and Jack, in turn, flashed it uponthe electric signal board below with the pressure of a button beneathhis finger.
"Attention!" came the command now, displayed in letters of fire.
Then a brief lapse of time, in which all was silence below.
Then another signal showed red on the board.
"No. 1 torpedo! Fire!"
Again came that faint metallic click to which the boys had grown soaccustomed, and a terrible engine of destruction sped over the watertoward the German ships.
A moment later a second command flashed on the board.
"No. 3 torpedo! Fire!"
Once more the click and then nothing but silence. A moment later LordHastings hurried below.
"Submerge!" he ordered.