THE RACE
The revenue cutter was a speedy craft, and by midforenoon she was far
outside the string of islands near which the crew of the _Kennebunk's_
steamer under Ensign MacMasters had experienced so many adventures.
The wireless operator picked up the superdreadnaught at last. She was
two hundred miles away, and when she gave her course to the cutter the
boys noticed that it occasioned a deal of excitement upon the
quarterdeck.
Unless the message is spread on the notice-board by the door of the
wireless room, the members of the crew of any vessel are not likely to
know what is going on in the air. The operator, like the usual telegraph
operator, is bound to secrecy.
"There's something up besides the blue peter, just as sure as you're a
foot high, Whistler," Al Torrance declared eagerly. "I'd give a punched
nickel to know just what it is."
Having nothing to occupy their time on the cutter, the four Navy boys
naturally gave their attention to rumor and gossip. They believed the
_Kennebunk_ was no longer headed up the coast; but where she was going
was a question.
"Crickey!" groaned Al, "if she gets into any muss without our being
aboard, I'll be a sore one."
"They wouldn't be so mean," wailed Ikey, "as to have a fight without us
being in it. Oi, oi! Oi, oi!"
"Nothing but subs to fight over here, kid, if any," the older boy said.
"Stop your keening."
"Say, how do we know where the big fight will be pulled off?" demanded
Frenchy excitedly.
"What big fight?" queried Whistler, unpuckering his lips.
"The one they've been talking about for months. You know, everybody's
said the Huns would come out some time. They're bound to give us a
chance at their Navy."
"Aw, they won't! Will they, Whistler?" asked Ikey.
"I don't really believe so myself," Torry said, shaking his head. "No
such luck."
"I believe the _Kennebunk_ has got new orders," Whistler rejoined
thoughtfully. "Whether or not they are for her to sail for the other
side, I don't know. I heard a hint about it when we came aboard the
cutter."
"Crickey! Let 'em hit it up, then," urged Torry. "If this little old
tub doesn't go fast enough I'll jump overboard and swim!"
"Oi, oi! Not me!" objected Ikey Rosenmeyer. "I've soaked in enough salt
water. I don't feel as though I should really need a bath again before
I get to be twenty-one yet."
"Tough on your messmates, Ikey," observed Whistler. "Do think better of
such a rash decision."
The four boys from Seacove were not alone in being anxious regarding the
_Kennebunk_ and their chance of overtaking her. Every man of the crew of
the wrecked auxiliary steamer desired to get aboard the superdreadnaught
if there was to be any fresh excitement.
Whistler's chums urged him to waylay Ensign MacMasters for information.
"G'wan, Whistler!" begged Frenchy. "You and him's just like brothers.
Ask him if the old _Kennebunk_ is running away from us, or if it's all
bunk?" and he grinned at his pun.
"Of course she's not running away," Whistler returned.
"Just the same this cutter is sprinting like all get out," put in Torry.
"Be a good fellow, Whistler. Ask Mr. MacMasters what it means."
His chum did not feel that he could do this. There is, after all, a gulf
between the quarterdeck and the forecastle. But Whistler put himself in
the ensign's way and, saluting smartly, asked a question:
"Beg pardon, sir! Did you find anybody aboard who could translate that
torn letter I picked up in the old witch's cabin?"
"That letter addressed to Franz Linder? No, Morgan; there is nobody
aboard the cutter who is familiar with German. But the moment we reach
the _Kennebunk_ I will put it into Captain Trevor's hands--never fear."
"Shall we really catch the battleship, sir?" asked Whistler eagerly.
"We've got to, Morgan;" declared Mr. MacMasters. "As you boys say,
'there is something doing' and we must be in it."
"But the battleship has changed her course, has she not, sir?"
"She has received new orders; but we will meet her on this course,
I have no doubt. Cheer up, my boy," and the ensign laughed. "You may
yet help work the big guns in a real battle."
So it was actually a race. The cutter must reach a certain point in the
open ocean to meet the superdreadnaught; if they missed her, in all
probability the party from the _Kennebunk_ would have to be returned to
port and be assigned to some other duty for the time being.
"Oi, oi!" groaned Ikey when he heard Whistler's report. "I never did
have any luck. If they had delicatessen shops on board ships, I'd be
made to police the pickle barrels yet."
The day did not pass without some additional excitement. The cutter
passed and signaled several Government vessels; but toward evening the
lookout picked up the smoke of a small destroyer ahead which, within the
next half hour, acted very strangely, indeed.
She seemed to be steaming in circles, and as the cutter raced nearer
those circles narrowed. Then her guns began to pop.
The cutter's crew and their guests became much excited. Surely the gun
crews of the destroyer were not at target practice. Yet they seemed to
have found a target in the middle of that circle the destroyer was
furrowing through the sea.
At last they saw an answering shot fired from the midst of the circle.
The destroyer was traveling at top speed and her own guns continued to
keep up a wicked cannonading of the central object.
"A Hun submarine!" shouted somebody. "They're circling it, and they are
going to get it, too!"
"If it is a submarine why doesn't she sink?" demanded Torry the
sceptical.
"I see why," Whistler said. "If the U-boat goes down the destroyer will
dart in and drag depth bombs. Then--good-_night_!"
"Wow, wow!" cried Frenchy. "She's so fast she can cut circles around the
U-boat, eh?"
"Sure as you live!" said Torry. "My! that's a pretty fight. If that
destroyer was the old _Colodia_, and we were only aboard of her! What
fun!"
The destroyer was narrowing her circles; the U-boat was in a pocket, and
unless the Hun put a lucky shell into the destroyer's engines, she
seemed doomed to capture or destruction.
The cutter raced nearer. Her course would take her directly into the
circle of battle unless her helm was changed.