Hancock Harrie Irving - Dave Darrin and the German Submarines. Or, Making a Clean-up of the Hun Sea Monsters стр 8.

Aye, aye, sir, replied the sailor, saluting, wheeling and walking away.

And Ill keep my eye on you, mused Darrin, as he watched the departing sailor. I may be wrong, but when I first sighted him there was a look on that lads face that I didnt like.

Even before he reached his station Seaman Jordan was quaking inwardly more apprehensively than is usual with a sailor caught in a slight delinquency.

CHAPTER III QUICK DOINGS OVER THE SHOAL

several days after that Darrin and the Logan cruised back and forth over the area assigned for patrol. During these days nothing much happened out of the usual. Then came a forenoon when Darrin received a wireless message, in code, ordering him to report back at once to the commanding officer of the destroyer patrol.

Mid afternoon found the Logan fifteen miles off the port of destination.

Be on the alert every instant, was the order Darrin gave out to officers and men. There have been several sinkings, the last month, in these waters. We are nearing Fishermans Shoal, which is believed to be a favorite bit of ground for submarines that hide on the bottom.

Over Fishermans Shoal the water was only about seventy feet in depth an ideal spot for a lurking, hiding undersea craft.

Five minutes later the bow lookout announced quietly:

Trail of bubbles ahead, sir.

Leaving Ensign Phelps on the bridge, Dave and Dan darted down and forward.

A less practised eye might have seen nothing worth noting, but to the two young officers the trail ahead was unmistakable, though Darrin quickly brought up his glass to aid his vision.

Pass the word for slow speed, Mr. Dalzell, Dave commanded, quietly. We want to keep behind that craft for a moment. Pass word to Mr. Briggs to stand by ready to drop a depth bomb.

Quietly as the orders were given, they were executed with lightning speed. The destroyer began to move more slowly, keeping well behind the bubble trail. At any instant, however, the Logan could be expected to leap forward, dropping the depth bomb at just the right moment. Then would come a muffled explosion, and, if the bomb were rightly placed, a broad coating of oil would appear upon the surface.

Dave was now in the very peak of the bow. Watching the bubbly trail he knew that the hidden enemy craft was moving more slowly than the destroyer, and he signalled for bare headway. And now the bubbles were rising as though from a stationary object under the waves.

Buoy, there! he ordered, quickly. Overboard with it.

Slowly the destroyer moved past the spot, but the weighted, bobbing buoy marked the spot plainly.

Have a diver ready, Mr. Dalzell, Dave called. Make ready to clear away a launch!

In the matter of effective speed Darrins officers and crew had been trained to the last word. Only a few hundred yards did the Logan move indolently along, then lay to.

Soon after that the diver and launch were ready. Dave stepped into the launch to take command himself.

May I go, too, sir? asked Dan Dalzell, saluting. I havent seen this done before.

Clear away a second launch, Mr. Dalzell. The crew will be armed. You will take also a corporal and squad of marines.

That meant the entire marine force aboard the Logan. Dalzell quickly got his force together, while Darrin gave orders to pull back to where the bobbing buoy lay on the water.

Ready, diver? called Dave, as the launch backed water and stopped beside the buoy.

Aye, aye, sir. The divers helmet was fitted into position and the air pump started. The diver signalled that he was ready to go down.

Men, stand by to help him over the side, Darrin commanded. Over he goes!

Hugging a hammer under one arm the diver took hold of the flexible cable ladder as soon as it had been lowered. Sailors paid out the rope, life line and air pipe as the man in divers suit vanished under the water.

Down and down went the diver, a step at a time. The buoy had been placed with such exactness that he did not have to step from the ladder to the sandy bottom. Instead, he stepped on to the deck of a great lurking underseas craft.

He must have grinned, that diver, as he knelt on top of the gray hull and hammered briskly, in the International Code, this message to the Germans inside the submarine shell:

Come up and surrender, or stay where you are and take a bomb! Which do you want?

Surely he grinned hard, under his divers mask, as he noted the time that elapsed. He knew full well that his hammered message had been heard and understood by the trapped Huns. He could well imagine the panic that the receipt of the message had caused the enemy.

Well send you a bomb, then? the diver rapped on the hull with his hammer. Im going up.

To this there came instant response. From the inside came the hammered message:

Dont bomb! Well rise and surrender!

Chuckling, undoubtedly, the diver signalled and was hoisted to the surface. The instant that his head showed above water the seaman-diver nodded three times toward Darrin. Then he was hauled into the boat, and the launch pulled away from the spot.