THE BATTLE OF THE DINGHIES
"Man overboard, off the port boom!"
"Stand by the falls. Whaleboat number one!" cried the officer of the
deck.
"What's this, what's this?" shouted the captain, running to the deck in
his pajamas.
"Two men leaving ship in the port dinghy, sir," answered the officer of
the deck.
"Step lively there, lads. What does all this mean, Mr. Officer of the
deck?"
"I don't know, sir. The anchor watch discovered that there was
something wrong. He's gone after them, sir."
By this time the captain was leaning over the port rail, training his
night glasses on the dark sea.
"I make them out. Who is the anchor watch?"
"Seaman Davis, sir."
"You say the lad went after them?"
"Yes, sir, so it seems."
"How?"
"He must have gone over the side, for someone just called man
overboard."
"The boy will be drowned! Have you ordered any one after him?"
"Yes, sir."
"Hurry, lads. The man may be drowning."
Meantime, Dan was doing his best to overtake the fugitives. The moment
he struck the water he threw out his hands to check his descent. This
prevented his going under very far. He shot up, and, shaking the water
from nose and eyes, struck out for the dinghy that was still moored to
the port boom.
He was clambering into the boat within the next minute. His knife,
attached to the knife lanyard, was in his hands almost the instant he
pulled himself into the boat. One swift stroke severed the line that
held the dinghy to the boom.
Dan sprang to the oars; throwing them into place in the locks, he sent
the little boat through the water with long, swift strokes.
"Dinghy number two, there!" shouted a voice from the deck.
"Aye, aye, sir," answered Dan.
"You all right?"
"Yes, sir."
"Better come back. The whaleboats will overhaul the other dinghy."
"The whaleboats are on the other side of the ship. By the time they
get around here the men will be out of sight. I'm under orders to get
them, sir," answered the plucky lad, putting more force into his
strokes.
His frail little boat cut the water with a swish and a splash, as the
swells slapped its sides, sending showers of spray over him.
Dan now and then turned in his seat, to get the location of the other
boat. He could but faintly make it out in the gloom of the night. He
was unable to say, as yet, whether he were gaining on the fugitives or
not. If he were gaining, it was but slowly.
The whaleboats had not yet rounded the bow of the "Long Island." It
seemed to take the boat crews a long time to launch the boats. The
captain thought so too, for he was now shouting out his orders with
explosive force, having taken command of the operations himself.
"Have an officer go in that boat," he commanded. "Here, ensign," as an
officer came up from below on the run, "take charge of those two boats.
If you don't make haste there you'll lose the dinghies and the men.
Remember, one man is out there in a little boat chasing two, perhaps,
desperate characters."
"Shall we hail Seaman Davis, and order him back to ship?" asked the
executive officer.
"That boy would not hear us, even if we were to blow the siren for him.
He is obeying orders, Coates. He'll do what he was sent to do, no
matter what the cost to himself. But the whaleboats should catch up
with him in time to be on hand if he comes up with the others. I let
him go on because, in that way, we shall keep track of the other boat.
If he does that he will be doing his full duty."
Dan was keeping the other dinghy in sight very well, indeed. He was
doing more than that, he was gaining rapidly now. He could hear the
splash of the oars in the other boat. The lad smiled grimly, for he
knew that the others were rowing badly, perhaps because they were
excited. Dan himself was an expert oarsman and every stroke in the
race was made to tell.
"Dinghy ahoy, there!" he called when within hailing distance.
The fleeing men made no reply to his hail.
"They are bound to get away. I wonder what it means? It may be that
some one has been on board from the shore to steal. No; that cannot be
it. It must be men from the ship, for they took a ship's boat. I'll
bet they are deserters."
He was now within a boat's length of the other dinghy, directly in its
wake. Observing this, the Battleship Boy swung out a little, so as to
come alongside of the other boat with several feet of water between the
two boats.
"Halt!" he commanded. "You're caught. I demand that you surrender and
cease rowing."
"No surrender. You go back if you know what is good for you."
The voice sounded strangely familiar to Dan Davis.
"I know you!" he shouted exultingly. "I know you now. You're Blackie.
I'll bet that's White in the boat with you. Boys, stop rowing and go
back to the ship. It's the only thing that will save you. I do not
know why you have done this thing, but your punishment will be much
less severe if you turn about and return at once."
A jeering laugh answered him.
"Then I shall have to take you back, and somebody is liable to get hurt
in that operation, I am thinking."
The boy gave his dinghy a sudden quick turn, and with one powerful
stroke sent it dashing up to within half a boat length of the other
craft.
As he neared it he caught the swing of a body in the first dinghy. Dan
ducked, flattening himself in his own frail craft just in time to avoid
a vicious swing of the other's boat hook. The gunwales of his boat
saved him from the blow.
Quick as a flash Davis grabbed the boat hook. He gave a violent, sharp
pull and the boat hook was in his possession.
"So that's your game, is it? I'll show you that two can play that sort
of game. You look out, or you'll get the pole over your own heads."
He drove his boat right alongside the other. At that moment Blackie
straightened up with an angry exclamation. At the same time he grabbed
an oar from the hands of his companion, making a vicious swing at Dan,
who, by this time, was half standing in his own boat.
But Dan had been on the watch for just such villainy. He parried the
blow with the captured boat hook.
[Illustration: Dan Parried the Blow With the Captured Boat Hook.]
"Smack, smack, smack!" boat hook and oar came together again and again.
The battle waged so furiously that for the moment the lad forgot all
about the other man in the boat. White was stealthily rising to his
feet, watching the Battleship Boy with keen, menacing eyes.
All at once he swung his oar. Dan heard it as it cut the air, but at
that instant he was powerless to dodge the blow, being busy parrying
one from Black.
White's oar caught Dan on the head. The Battleship Boy wavered for a
brief instant, seeking vainly to catch his balance; then he toppled
over backwards into the sea.
Fortunately for him, the blow had been a glancing one.
"Row, row!" cried Black. His companion fell to the oars. The men, as
they well knew, were now in a desperate situation.
Dan twisted his body about in the water, his fingers closing over the
gunwale of his own boat. The blow had dazed him, though he still had
plenty of fight left in him.
He clambered back into his own boat with no little effort, for his
clothes were soaked and weighed him down, this being the second wetting
he had had within a very short time.
The other dinghy now had a slight start of him, but when the Hawaiians
looked back a moment later, they saw Dan again in their wake.
The Battleship Boy's jaws were set. His fighting blood was up. He
would give no quarter now.
"I'll get those heathens at any cost," he growled.
He had forgotten all about the whaleboats that had been sent for the
men. Perhaps they had lost their quarry on the dark waters.
"I'm after you," shouted Dan. "This time I'm going to get you, you
miserable deserters! Things like you deserve to be drowned without the
formality of court-martial. Do you surrender?"
"No."
No sooner were the words out of the Hawaiian's mouth than Dan drove his
dinghy bow-on against the other boat. So sudden and unexpected had
been the movement that the islanders were taken wholly off their guard.
Black fell forward, nearly going into the sea, while White, who was at
the oars, lost his grip on them for the moment.
A crunching sound accompanied the collision. The bow of Dan's boat was
crushed in the thin planking of the other dinghy. The hurt was not
deep enough to sink the little craft, but it made an opening through
which the seas slopped persistently.
Dan sought to swing his boat alongside the other, when a sea
unexpectedly threw him off. A full minute of valuable time was thus
lost. Still Dan persisted. He was working at high speed now.
This time he drove his boat right up beside the other, so close that
the two boats smashed together with a force that threatened to break in
their gunwales.
Black, in the time that it took Dan to get closer, had recovered
himself and grasped an oar from his companion. Ere the Battleship Boy
could ship his oars the enemy had swung an oar. It caught Dan a
glancing blow on the forehead, the sharp edge of the oar cutting a deep
gash there. The blood was in the lad's eyes instantly. He brushed his
eyes clear with an exclamation of impatience.
The oar was raised for another blow. Davis did not stand still to wait
for it to land this time. With a bound he was in the other boat. He
had jumped from the seat of his own dinghy, measuring the distance well.
Black was taken by surprise. He had no time to dodge. Dan landed full
upon him, the two falling to the bottom of the boat with a crash and a
jolt that threatened to overturn the little craft.
For a few seconds the men struggled desperately, Black squirming and
twisting in his efforts to get his hands up.
"He's trying to get his knife," was the Battleship Boy's swift
conclusion. "I hate to do it, but I've got to, or they will have me in
the sea."
He raised Black's head, giving it two sharp thumps against the ribs of
the boat. That settled Black for the time being. The Hawaiian
straightened out and lay still. But Dan had been none too quick.
White was standing over him with raised oar ready to bring it down at
the first opportunity. He had not dared to strike before, not being
able to make out his enemy as the two figures struggled at the bottom
of the dinghy.
The instant that he saw Dan scrambling up he brought the oar down. Dan
dodged the blow cleverly, the blade of the oar landing on the side of
Black's head, thus finishing the work that the Battleship Boy had begun.
The two men sprang at each other at the same instant. This time the
boy found that in White he had a far different antagonist. White met
him with a swift blow which barely grazed Dan's head. Dan countered as
best he could, planting a blow on the Hawaiian's chest, staggering the
fellow and at the same time well-nigh upsetting the boat.
Blow after blow was struck in the rocking boat, now and then each of
the contestants landing a staggering punch on his adversary's head.
All at once Dan lost his footing and fell. As he did so, he stretched
forth a hand, and by desperate effort succeeded in fastening his hold
upon the Hawaiian's arm.
White lost his balance and pitched forward.
Both men fell half over the side of the dinghy with heads and shoulders
in the sea. For the next few seconds a desperate struggle followed.
Dan held to his man, knowing full well that, were his adversary to get
the upper hand now, it would go hard with Dan Davis. Using their free
hands, the men managed to pull themselves back into the boat.
By this time both were well-nigh exhausted. Their efforts were
attended with little success compared with what they had done earlier
in the battle. White was struggling to get his adversary overboard,
while Dan was seeking to overcome the Hawaiian without doing him
serious injury.
All at once the men stumbled over a seat. Dan fell prone upon the
prostrate Black, with White on top of him. And there the gladiators
lay, breathing hard, gasping for breath, half suffocated with the salt
water that was dashing into their faces.
Everything about him seemed to Dan suddenly to grow blacker than
before. He felt his head swimming.
"I'm going to faint," he gasped.
With one final supreme effort he threw the weight of White's body from
him, and, rolling over, wrapped his arms about the Hawaiian, crushing
the fellow down with all his strength.