THE PERISCOPE AT DAWN
That night the boys had ample evidence that they were inside the
submarine zone, where anything might happen at any minute. Not a light
was permitted on any of the ships, and they traveled along in the most
peculiar fashion and over the most irregular course, never going at more
than half speed and not more than a mile or so without a complete change
of direction.
For no apparent reason whatever the engines would slow down and entirely
stop, and in that position they would remain for ten, fifteen, twenty
minutes or even half an hour, and then start up again on another tack.
"I believe we've become separated from our convoy," said Slim, who had
been upon deck, and now entered the wireless room where Joe and Jerry
were watching Lieutenant Mackinson make some readjustments of the
wireless mechanism. "The pilot doesn't seem to know the course. Say,
wouldn't it be great sport if we should be lost from the others? But I
wonder why the captain does not wireless them?"
"No need," Lieutenant Mackinson assured him, "for we are not lost, nor
are we separated from them. Every vessel in this fleet is simply
carrying out a program secretly arranged long in advance, and which was
in the nature of a sealed order which the various captains did not open
until this morning.
"I dare say that our convoy is as near us now as at any time during the
voyage, and that it is maintaining the same position at all times, going
through the exact maneuvers that the _Everett_ is performing."
"It is to fool the submarines?" asked Joe.
"Exactly," the lieutenant replied. "Our government is taking every
precaution, and no unnecessary risks. You see, there is no way of
keeping absolutely secret the departure of our transports. Nor is there
any assurance that the information does not go directly to the German
authorities, and from them to the commanders of the submarines. Our
actions are designed to prevent them from estimating our course or
position.
"It was their knowledge of that fact, and their determination to learn
our whereabouts in another way, which doubtless led to that spy being
aboard this transport. I feel----"
Suddenly the lieutenant ceased speaking, and all four, as of one accord,
sprang toward the radio instruments.
"Listen!" Lieutenant Mackinson commanded, as he jammed the headpiece
over his ears.
"SOS"--the most tragic of all the calls of the sea, was coming to them
as a frantic appeal sent out through the air to any and all who might
hear and respond.
"SOS," the lieutenant wrote down hurriedly as the message came through
space. And then:
"American--_Memphis_--submarine pursuing--53-1/2 lat.--17 W.
lon.--running fifteen knots three points south of west."
The entire message was repeated, and then there was silence--the dense
and seemingly impenetrable silence that had existed before.
Came the nearer and more powerful crackle of the radio.
"One of our destroyers is replying," Lieutenant Mackinson announced, and
one by one he jotted down the words:
"Continue same direction. U. S. destroyer be with you in about two
hours."
"Understand you," the return message came back a moment later.
"Submarine still on stern. Has fired two shots, but both missed."
It was a thrilling moment for the boys from Brighton. Out there in the
blackness of the night an American fighting craft was separating itself
from the rest of the fleet to run full speed to the assistance of a
helpless merchantman, and, if possible, to do battle with the enemy
U-boat.
For an hour and a half they sat there, speculating as to the possible
outcome.
"I'd give a month's pay to be aboard that destroyer," exclaimed Jerry
enviously. "That's the sort of excitement I like. Just imagine coming up
to that merchantman just in time to save her from destruction, and then
having a regular battle with the submarine, and finally watching her
sink, with a shell hole torn in her side!"
"Yes," added Slim, "and imagine being aboard that merchantman, with a
shell hole torn in her side before the destroyer arrives!"
"It's pretty cold swimming on a night like this," said Joe. "I've tried
it, and I know."
Lieutenant Mackinson, still seated before the wireless instrument,
signaled them for quiet again. Another message was coming through space.
It was in code, but was one that was easy for the lieutenant to
translate, for he had heard it before.
"Submarine disappeared. Returning to fleet. Convoying _Memphis_."
"Go on deck, keep your eyes busy off the port bow, and you may see
something interesting," the lieutenant told them.
Following the suggestion they went above and had stood there for perhaps
fifteen or twenty minutes when suddenly the lookout in the crow's nest
sang out: "Destroyer approaching, two points off the port bow."
Almost at the same instant there loomed out of the dense darkness a
faint light, apparently miles away. For a moment they would see it, and
then it would be gone, only to reappear again, another time to be
extinguished. But obviously all the time it was coming nearer.
They noted, too, that a similar process was being enacted by the cruiser
in the lead.
"What does it mean?" asked Slim.
"The destroyer is just using another sort of wireless," Joe explained.
"She is blinking her identity to the fleet, and the cruiser out there is
signaling recognition."
The next time the destroyer signaled she was almost abreast of them, but
about two miles away to the north. Her message then could be read by all
the boys. The words it spelled out, however, were a complete riddle:
"Love--sky--sand--curtain--run."
It was not for several hours that they learned that the captain of the
destroyer had flashed a message that he would convoy the _Memphis_
several miles further westward, and then rejoin the others, and that the
fleet commander, in flashing back "bundle," had given his O. K., with an
admonition for speed.
There being no further necessity for the spy watch which had been
maintained on the previous night, the boys drew lots to determine which
one should do duty until morning in the wireless room, and it fell to
Joe.
But the first faint gray streaks were hardly painting the eastern sky
when Jerry and Slim, unable to sleep longer, came out upon deck to take
for themselves a general survey of the danger zone.
"What's that?" cried Slim suddenly, staring off over the stern of the
_Everett_.
"Smoke!" echoed Jerry, excitedly.
"Yes, smoke from the stack of the destroyer," said Joe, who had come up
behind them without being heard. "We just got her signal a moment ago."
"How far do you suppose she is away?" asked Slim.
They were speculating upon the distance between the two vessels, when
Slim, speechless for the moment, pointed to what seemed to be little
more than a dark speck on the water about a mile astern and to the west
of them--for at that time their zig-zag course pointed them almost due
north.
"Submarine approaching astern!" sang out the man in the crow's nest.
It was as though the startling message had been megaphoned to every man
aboard the _Everett_. At the same time the cruiser of the fleet began
maneuvering herself between where the periscope showed the submarine to
be and the transport itself.
Almost simultaneously the U-boat came to the surface and one of the big
guns on the cruiser belched forth a shell that apparently fell a short
distance the other side of the submarine. The U-boat itself let loose a
shot, and with such accuracy that only the sudden maneuver of the
transport at that instant saved it from being hit.
By this time the decks of the _Everett_ were crowded with the khaki-clad
soldiers of Uncle Sam whom the Germans were trying to prevent from
getting into the trenches by sending them to the bottom of the Atlantic.
The cruiser had headed straight for the U-boat, while the destroyer was
coming up behind it with even greater speed.
For some reason that never will be known the commander of the submarine
had ignored the destroyer entirely, although it was difficult to imagine
that he had not seen it. The general supposition later aboard the
_Everett_ was that something had happened to his batteries and he was
unable to submerge.
"Hurrah!" shouted hundreds of men on the _Everett_ in unison as the
torpedo-boat destroyer opened fire.
And the aim of her gunners was deadly! for just as the U-boat began to
submerge, one of the big projectiles from the destroyer hit her squarely
amidships. There was a terrific explosion, the stern of the undersea
craft was lifted upward, clear of the water, she stuck her nose into
the briny deep, and without another second's delay, dove to the bottom,
a wreck.
As the tremendous pressure of the water crushed in her air tanks, great
bubbles rose to the surface and broke, causing rippling waves to roll
outward in increasingly large circles. Then a flood of oil came to the
surface of the sea, and the final evidence of the tragedy was
obliterated.