ANOTHER BLOWING UP.
For the moment after Captain Oscar Pelham made his terrible discovery
that Lieutenant Raxtell intended to blow up the new Holland he could
neither move nor speak.
He clearly saw that the lieutenant was mad, but what had caused his
insanity was a mystery.
His face was like chalk, and his eyes rolled in a fashion horrible in
the extreme.
"We will all go to heaven!" he heard the naval officer mutter. "All go
to heaven--and that will be better than going home. Home! Ha! ha! So
the admiral would not give me shore leave? I will show him a trick or
two! Here goes!"
"Hold!"
The cry came from Oscar, and aroused as from a dream, he hurled himself
upon the madman and bore him to the floor.
Frothing at the mouth, Raxtell struggled desperately at first to free
himself and then to bite Oscar as might a wolf.
But the young commander of the new Holland was fighting for life, and
held him as in a vise of steel.
"Let me go!" roared the madman. "Let me go, or I will eat you up alive!"
"Be calm, lieutenant," gasped Oscar. "Be calm. You are not well. Be
calm."
"What's the row here?" came from the doorway, and Walton, the
ammunition man, came in.
"Quick, he is mad," answered Oscar. "Help me."
"Mad! By Jove, captain, is it possible?"
Walton hurled himself into the contest without hesitation, and between
the pair they speedily made Raxtell a close prisoner, binding him hands
and feet, and fitting his face with a leather mask, that he might not
bite himself or others.
It afterwards came out that the lieutenant was of a nervous
disposition, and that homesickness had preyed upon his mind until his
reason forsook him.
Nothing could be done at present but keep him on board, and realizing
that the poor fellow was not accountable for what he had tried to do,
Captain Oscar treated him with every consideration.
Early in the morning of the next day the fleet of the enemy was
discovered riding the ocean in a vast semi-circle.
The warships numbered thirty-four, and the transports sixty-six, and
the sight was a truly imposing one.
"We can't do much against that fleet," said Andy Greggs, after the new
Holland had sunk out of sight.
"We can do our share," responded the young captain.
He had his eyes on three ships of the enemy--the British cruiser
Terrible, the German gunboat Wilhelm II., and the French
ship-of-the-line Philippe.
"I'll sink all three, or know the reason why," he said to himself, and
laid his plans with great care.
The three ships he had in view were not over a quarter of a mile apart,
one from another, the Terrible being in the center.
This would necessitate a run of half a mile to reach all three warships.
The course of the new Holland was changed and they moved slowly and
cautiously up to the Wilhelm II., keeping well under water all of the
time.
While the run was being made Oscar held a consultation with the
ammunition man and with George Dross.
It was calculated that it would take five minutes to run from one ship
to another, and five minutes to adjust each of the several torpedoes.
Soon the Wilhelm II. was gained, and in absolute silence the torpedo
was fastened to her keel.
Only fish watched the movement and gazed curiously at the torpedo,
against which they rubbed their slimy sides.
"Set the fuse at half an hour," ordered Captain Oscar, and this was
done.
Five minutes later they had gained the keel of the Terrible, and here a
torpedo was set at twenty minutes.
Then a swift run was made for the Philippe, where they set a torpedo at
ten minutes.
"Now run for it!" cried Captain Oscar, and the new Holland spun away,
straight into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
The torpedoes had been set to go off at exactly half-past eleven, and
it lacked but two minutes of that time when the new Holland shot to the
surface at a safe distance from the hostile fleet.
But the submarine boat was discovered and at once several torpedo-boats
belonging to the British set off to give her chase.
"We are going to catch it from the little fellows," said Andy Greggs,
with a grim smile.
"They won't reach us. We'll go down as soon as the explosion is over,"
answered Captain Oscar.
He held his chronometer in his hand and was counting off the seconds.
The time was up!
As he put the watch in his pocket a deafening roar rent the air, and
the German warship was seen to rise in the air and then fall, a broken
and shapeless mass upon the waters.
Then came two other roars, one directly after the other, as the English
vessel and the French ship-of-the-line caught it.
The explosion under the Philippe was the most perfect, for the craft
was literally split to bits, not alone by the torpedo, but by the
explosions of her various magazines. Everybody on this ship was killed
but a cabin boy, who leaped overboard at the first noise, and was
picked up by one of the smaller warships.
With the Terrible it was different. The English cruiser was an
unusually large one, and to have cut her to pieces would have taken
several torpedoes.
Inside of two minutes she sank, the majority of her crew leaping
overboard as she went down.
Some of the sailors were caught in the suction created and went down
with the warship, never to rise again.
An explosion under the ocean added to the panic, and many were killed
by this.
Over two hundred were floating around on the sea until other warships
came to their assistance and picked them up.
The blowing up of the three warships created consternation among the
others of the fleet, and signal after signal was displayed from the
commanding officer's flagship, all reading: "Clear for sea immediately;
a submarine torpedo-boat is among us. Double your watches."
Then the entire fleet began to move for the broad Atlantic, chasing the
transports before them.
The torpedo-boats which had come out to do battle with the new Holland
were tremendously surprised to see the strange craft slide from view,
and realizing that they themselves might be blown up at any instant,
they lost no time in running for their lives.
The new Holland could have given them plenty of trouble, but Captain
Oscar considered his ammunition too valuable to throw away on such
"small fish," as he called them.
"One of our torpedoes costs the government eight thousand six hundred
dollars," he said. "Those little chaps aren't worth that to me. I am
after big guns."
Considering that the new Holland had done enough for the time being,
and wishing to obtain a new supply of torpedoes and dynamite bombs, the
young captain now turned back to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and reported
to Admiral Fielding.
The admiral had witnessed the blowing up of the three warships through
a powerful field glass which was stationed in an observation tower at
the top of the mainmast of the flagship, and he was highly delighted
at the success of the new Holland's work.
"That craft is a marvel," he said. "The government must have more of
them."
"It certainly would be a good thing," replied Oscar. "I think I've got
the enemy pretty well frightened. Perhaps they think we already have
more than one of these boats, having seen the work done in Cuban waters
and now here."
"Perhaps; and I hope they think we have a dozen. They will then
imagine their costly warships of no value against such an enemy, and
consequently be glad to treat for peace."
Using the wireless telegraphy system on the admiral's flagship, Oscar
sent word to Bridgeport arsenal to send him at once a large quantity
of torpedoes and dynamite bombs, and also a new style of bomb called
highite.
Highite was a new explosive, of which much was expected. A highite
shell when it exploded sent hundreds of little shells forth in a
circle, which exploded an instant later.
"That is what we ought to have had in Cuban waters," said Andy. "We
could then have made those Japanese sick."
A week elapsed before the ammunition reached the new Holland and was
stored on board.
In the meantime it was learned that the fleet of the enemy had turned
southward, probably with the intention of landing on the New England
coast.
The fastest despatch boats in our naval service were sent out to watch
the enemy, and at the same time the new Holland was ordered southward,
to be in readiness at any time the hostile fleet should show itself too
close to our shores.