CHAPTER XVIII
DANNY GRIN PROVES HIS METTLE
With her boats secure, and all hands, including the recent "ladypassengers," on board once more without loss, the battered-looking"Prince" turned on her way.
All that day she sailed, yet found no submarine confiding enough to riseand take a chance at her shabby-looking hull.
"Of course there is one big chance you have to take," said Darry, atdinner in the ward-room that night, "and that is the danger that asubmarine will think this old hulk worthy of sinking by means of atorpedo."
"No sub will shoot a torpedo at us," rejoined Dalzell, "if she once getsa look at us. A torpedo costs a small fortune, while a shell or two costnothing by comparison. The idea in sending out a trap-craft like the'Prince' is that no German naval officer would think of throwing away atorpedo on her."
"Of course," Dave admitted, "the greatest danger is that a German shell,fired above water, will cripple you and put you out of business."
"It's a sporting chance, to be sure," Dan admitted.
"If your engines were stopped by a shell, and you couldn't maneuver forposition, and therefore couldn't use your guns, and a German submarinecrew took you prisoners, the sight of your guns would insure that allhands on board would die painful but sure deaths."
"It's that sporting element of risk that makes the game so pleasant,"Dan retorted.
His junior officers chuckled.
"I'm glad you all take it the way you do," was Dave's cordial rejoinder."It adds a lot to your chances of success."
"And just what do you think our chances are?" Dan pressed home. At thisthe junior officers listened eagerly, for Darrin's sound judgment wasfast becoming a tradition in the Navy.
"Your chances," Dave declared, "are that you probably will sink severalsubmarines. Then, one of these days, you'll either get the unlooked-fortorpedo, or else you'll meet a master in strategy or gunfire, and you'llgo to the bottom--and another bright plan will be given up by the Allies.But I hope you'll do a huge lot of damage before the probable endcomes."
That night the "Prince" prowled the seas, and when Darrin awoke in themorning she was headed toward her home port, that time might not bewasted to the westward of the locality where German submarines werelikely to operate against merchantmen.
Nor had Dave taken more than one look overboard before he discoveredthat the "Prince" now lay much lower in the water.
"Our water ballast tanks are filled," Dan explained. "That gives us theappearance of being heavily loaded, as with American wheat, forinstance."
"Soldiers, wheat and ammunition are the things the Germans most enjoysending to the bottom," Dave nodded. "Really, it is too bad that thisseeming old tub doesn't look good enough to carry troops."
"Oh, I think that even as a cargo tramp we'll draw the fire of anysubmarine whose commander gets a glimpse of us," Dan replied.
Within ten minutes after he had said it a submarine rose, fifteenhundred yards away, and, without firing, signalled to the "Prince" tolie to.
Almost instantly "Abandon ship" shrieked from the steam whistle, and theearly performance of the day before was gone through with. After theboats had started away, bearing sailors and men and "women" passengers,the submarine came up closer.
All in a jiffy the ports were opened and all three shells from thestarboard battery landed in the enemy hull. There was no fight afterthat, the submersible sinking before any of the crew could get clear tosave themselves.
"Do you begin to see the joke?" demanded Danny Grin, grimly. "Are youprepared to join in the laugh at the Germans?"
"If the 'Prince' continues her good work for a fortnight," smiled DaveDarrin, "the ocean will be a lot safer place for American troopships."
"I'm beginning to feel," Dan remarked, "that I can highly endorse theintelligence of those who sent me out on this errand."
"The errand is a good one, anyway," Darrin laughed, teasingly.
The rest of the day passed without other incident than the appearance oftwo destroyers, one British and one American. Each of these war craftsignalled to ask if convoy were desired, to which Dan signalled acourteous, "No, thank you."
"Won't those chaps feel sold when they learn, if they ever do, what kindof an outfit they wanted to protect?" Dan chuckled.
Just before dawn, next morning, Dalzell was roused from a nap and calledto the bridge.
"Gun-fire dead ahead, sir," reported Ensign Stark. "Don't you make outthe flashes, sir?"
"Yes," nodded Dalzell, after he had taken and used the proffered glass."Some one is catching it, but is the victim a steamship, or is it asubmarine that some destroyer has overhauled? Oh, for just sixty secondsI'd like to have our wireless rigged!"
Ensign Stark had already ordered the speed increased, and so reported,but Danny Grin, as he heard the firing, seized the engine-room telephoneand ordered all speed possible crowded on.
Thus he swept along, without lights, until within a mile of thebright-red flashes, which he could now see without the aid of a glass.
At this point speed was reduced to eight knots and the "Prince" movedalong more moderately.
"What is it ahead?" asked Dave Darrin, who had just turned out and comebriskly up to the bridge.
"It's a one-sided fight," Dan answered, "but I don't know the kind ofcraft. Undoubtedly one is a submarine. She can't have been veryseriously hit, either, or the firing would be ended."
"You have a searchlight?"
"Yes, but with the strictest orders not to use it except to save shipand crew," was Dan's answer.
Soon after, despite the darkness, the chums were able to make out asteamship ahead, heeled well over to port. And the flashes of a gun wereso close to the water as to indicate that a submarine was firing, evenbefore its outlines could be made out.
"The cowardly hounds!" blazed Dave, indignantly. "They've got that shipsinking, and all they're doing is terrorizing the poor wretches aboardby slow, systematic murder!"
"I'll get them as soon as I have light enough for a gunner's sight,"muttered Dan Dalzell. Calling a boatswain's mate under the bridge, hedirected him to hoist a Norwegian flag at the stern, and to bend andhoist the signal:
"We wish to save crew and passengers."
"And that's the truth, too, though perhaps not all of it," snortedDalzell, all of whose fighting blood had been aroused by the cowardlyproceeding going on ahead.
In hoisting the Norwegian flag he was wholly within his rights as anaval commander. Under international law a naval commander is entitledto hoist any neutral or belligerent flag, including even that of theenemy, in order to maneuver into fighting position. But, before he canfire a shot, the commander must hoist the flag that he actually sailsunder.
In this instance Dan would give the "Prince" the assumed character of aneutral merchant ship that desired to play a humane part. No realNorwegian skipper would have been likely to take such a chance, as itwould only have invited the destruction of his craft.
Dawn came quickly now. With the first streaks Dan ran up the signal andsailed daringly in. The submarine, which lay ahead, had ceased firing.The doomed ship took the plunge and vanished, but in three boats and onsix rafts a frightened lot of men and women were seeking to get awayfrom Death.
"Lie to and abandon ship!" signalled the German commander, as soon asthe presence of the "Prince" was made out.
But Dan, with the range, took the bull boldly by the horns. Openingports in a jiffy, and with gun crews at quarters on both starboard andport, he gave the firing order.
"Give 'em 'Chermany over all,' and put it all over them!" commandedDanny Grin savagely.
Three shells left the starboard battery before the astounded Germancommander had realized that it was a fighting craft that menaced him.
Two of the shells flew over, striking the water beyond, but the thirdcrashed through the plates of the conning tower, exploding inside andblowing off part of the top of the tower.
No sooner had the guns been fired than Dalzell chan
ged the course tobring the port battery into play.
"Give 'em 'Chermany over all' all over again!" roared Danny Grin'svoice. "Oh, it's a great game, don'd it?"
A laugh rose from below, but that laugh was drowned by the joint crashof all the guns of the port battery. Another shell entered thesubmarine's tower, and two struck the hull, inflicting more deadlydamage.
And now a machine gun began to play over the hull of the sea monster,sending such a storm of bullets that one had to admire the courage--orwas it despair?--of a German officer who dared the leaden tempest andsprang from the tower with a white flag, signalling surrender.
"Cease firing!" roared Dalzell through a megaphone. "But load and standby ready for some German brand of treachery."
Undoubtedly the German officer knew that he stood under the muzzles ofloaded guns. His face white and set, he signalled his offer tosurrender.
"We'll accept you as prisoners if you act honestly," was signalled backby Dan's order. "But we'll blow you into the air if you try to play asingle trick on us."
Acting under further orders a collapsible boat was put over the side ofthe submarine. The captain, the second-in-command and the engineerofficer came over to the "Prince" on the first trip, two men returningwith the boat to bring other prisoners. In the meantime the rafts andboats from the sunken ship were turning back to the rescuer.
Barely more than half of the Germans had been gotten clear of thesubmarine when that unlucky craft foundered. Two survivors were pickedup from the sea, but the rest went down into the great salt-water grave.
"Periscope on the port quarter!" rang a lookout's hail.
Dalzell rushed to the port end of the bridge, glass to his eyes.
Yes, there was the tell-tale tube above water, some eight hundred yardsaway, the sun shining on the water drops that clung to it.
"Periscope on the starboard quarter!"
Dan performed a sprint to the starboard end of the bridge, to find thenews only too true, though the periscope vanished within a second or twoafter he had sighted it.
"'Ware torpedo, on port quarter!"
Moving like a jumping-jack, Dan's right hand reached for the lever ofthe engine-room telegraph. Half-speed ahead! Full speed!
"'Ware torpedo on starboard quarter!"
There was no time to observe the torpedo wake traveling toward the"Prince." Dalzell's orders were based on what he had seen of thelocations of the two periscopes.
A sharp, oblique turn to starboard, then a further turn just as thepropellers began to kick at full speed.
Both torpedoes passed astern, their courses crossing. The maneuverbrought the tramp around so that the starboard battery could now betrained on the submersible to the southward.
Her commander, taking desperate chances, rose to the surface to openwith his forward gun.
Fatal mistake! Only one gun barked from the "Prince's" starboardbattery, tearing a hole in the Hun's hull. And now Dalzell completed theturn to give his full attention to the remaining submarine. She,commanded by a more cautious man, had vanished.
Not for long, however, for a line on the water revealed the wake made bythe conning tower as she headed straight for the "Prince."
Again Dan's orders rapped out. The seeming tramp steamer, developing aspeed that could not have been looked for, maneuvered so as to run,bow-on, at the submersible.
The craft to the southward was sinking, but the one to the northward wascoming straight. A light streak on the water shot out in advance of herwhile the "Prince" was making her turn. Seeing that he was bound tomiss, the Hun commander let loose with his other tube. The "Prince"completed her maneuver, and now showed only her bow to the enemy, herhull standing away in a straight line between the courses of the twotorpedoes, which dashed on by her and were lost in the distance.
As the craft were rapidly nearing each other, Dan, by the aid of hismarine glass, located exactly the beginning, or nearer end, of theconning tower's wake.
"She may submerge and come up astern of you!" muttered Dave Darrin.
"We'll see!" ground out Dalzell, between his teeth, still holding theglass to his eyes.
There was no question of getting the range, for the two craft werelessening the distance, altering it, every second that passed.
Still Dan headed on, knowing that the enemy could submerge and changeher course at greater depth.
"I've got only one chance in a million to get that rascal!" Dalzellgrowled to his chum.
"And apparently the enemy has all the other chances in the million--butit's a great game!" cried Dave Darrin.
Dan held on steadily, his motto "Win or sink!"
Dave Darrin and the German Submarines Page 19