Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns Part 20

The target ship was being signaled again and she was coming back. At the first alarm of a submarine in the vicinity she had started coastward.

The wireless was snapping. Messages were being sent out announcing the sinking of the U-boat and warning other craft, especially merchant vessels, of the possibility of other undersea boats being in the vicinity.

It was proved, at least, that the Germans had sent more submarines to this side of the ocean. The visit of the _Deutschland_ and of U-53 to America before the United States got into the war, had been in the nature of a warning as to what the Hun could really do. Now perhaps a squadron of U-boats was to be sent across to prey upon American shipping or to sh.e.l.l helpless seaboard towns.

The two younger Seacove boys, who had come so near committing a huge piece of folly by their small practical joke, slipped down to the lower deck again to recover Frenchy's knife. If it should be found by the master-at-arms, or was handed to him, it would go into the lucky bag; and then Frenchy would have to explain how he lost it in that unused compartment of the ship if he wished to get back the knife again.

Just as they got to the pa.s.sage abaft the compartment in question, Ikey uttered a warning "hist!" and drew Frenchy back. Somebody was coming out of the room in which they built the dummy that had so fooled the ship's company.

"Who is it?" gasped Michael.

"Oi, oi!" murmured Ikey, peering again, "It's Seven Knott."

"Shucks! I'm not afraid of him," said Frenchy stepping forth into the pa.s.sage. The next moment he cried out: "What's the matter, Hansie?"

The petty officer was plainly frightened. He turned with rolling eyes and a pasty countenance to the two boys.

"What you seen?" demanded Ikey, likewise disturbed by the petty officer's appearance.

"No--nothin'," murmured the frightened Seven Knott. "But--but it's a ghost."

"What's a ghost?" demanded the boys together, and although they did not believe in ghosts, they could not help being shaken a bit by Seven Knott's earnestness.

"It's what I heard," whispered the older man, still trembling.

"Oi, oi!" exclaimed Ikey Rosenmeyer suddenly. "Was it a clock ticking?"

"That's it! That's what it sounded like. But there's no clock there,"

the boatswain's mate said. "I couldn't find anything. It's all about you--in the air! I tell you it's a ghost, a ghost-clock. 'The death watch.' They say you hear it on board a ship when she's doomed to sink.

Something bad is going to happen to the _Kennebunk_," finished Seven Knott earnestly.

"Crickey!" cried Frenchy under his breath. "Something bad just happened to that German U-boat. Maybe this death watch you talk about was counting out the submarine, not the battleship."

But Hertig was not to be easily pacified. He was superst.i.tious anyway.

He believed that he could not be drowned himself, for instance, because he had been born with a caul over his face.

Frenchy went into the room, presumably to listen for the "tick-tock"

sound; but actually to find his knife. He came out with the latter in his pocket; but he also showed a rather pale face and he had not much to say until Seven Knott went away.

The latter crept away, plainly in great trouble of spirit. Ikey asked his chum:

"Did you hear it again?"

"Ye-es," admitted Frenchy. "It does sound queer. What do you suppose it can be?"

"Don't know. Let's tell Whistler," said Ikey, who had a deal of confidence in Morgan.

"That's all right. But don't tell him anything about our being in that room before. Remember, Ikey, we don't know a livin' thing about that first periscope the lookouts spied."

"Sure I won't tell," agreed the other. "It wasn't such a good joke after all, was it, Frenchy?"

And Frenchy agreed with a solemn nod of his head.

CHAPTER XVI

AN ACCIDENT

The _Kennebunk_ shook throughout her structure at that moment and Ikey darted for the between-decks ladder.

"Another submarine!" he shouted. "Oi, oi!"

"Hold on!" drawled Frenchy. "Nothing like it. There goes another. They are at practice. The target's in range."

The four Seacove boys had seen something of gun practice on the destroyer _Colodia_; but the secondary batteries of the smaller vessel made no such racket as did the big guns of the _Kennebunk_.

The discharge of a turret gun aboard the superdreadnaught was an important matter, and a costly one as well. The gun crews practiced all the movements save the actual discharge of the guns every day. To burn up several hundred pounds of powder and fire away the expensive projectiles in rehearsal was a serious matter.

The gun crew that had made a clean hit on the submarine with its first sh.e.l.l, had already shown what value practice shooting was. The high standard of the gunnery in our Navy pays for all it costs.

These gunners had practiced at the schools and on other vessels before being a.s.signed to the superdreadnaught. No matter how much good powder and shot had already been flung away in training that particular crew of Turret Number Two, the sinking of the German submarine had paid for it all.

Whistler and Torry did not, of course, actually fire the gun. The gun captain did that. But the exact team work of the crew had much to do with the score of the gun in target practice; and the two friends did their work commendably.

There was a sharp lookout kept during target practice for other submarines. The disappearance of the first periscope which had been hailed from the masthead was the cause of much discussion. It was generally believed that this first submarine had wisely made off when its sister ship was so promptly sunk by the battleship.

Frenchy and Ikey almost burst from their desire to tell what they knew about the mystery. But they did not dare.

It had been a lesson which the two mischief-loving boys would not easily forget. While the whole ship's company was watching the imitation periscope Frenchy and Ikey had slipped overboard through the ash-chute, the real submarine might have torpedoed the _Kennebunk_.

The score of each gun crew was transmitted to Washington by favor of the auxiliary steamer which towed the target, and she disappeared coastward just at sunset. The superdreadnaught was under orders to proceed on a southerly course, and parallel with the coast, for some considerable distance. She was doing outside patrol duty on this, her first real cruise.

Men and officers were first of all expected to get used to each other and to the ship. This familiarity could only come about through drills and practice work in every branch. The men must have confidence in their officers, and the officers know their men thoroughly before the commander could feel that he had a smoothly working ship's company.

The excitement caused by the first blow struck at the enemy and the successful target practice that followed would not soon wear off. And both incidents helped the morale of the crew.

Almost every enlisted man showed delight in his face. Only Hans Hertig displayed a woful countenance. The solemnity of the boatswain's mate attracted even Ensign MacMasters' attention.

"What's the matter with you, Hans?" he demanded of the petty officer.

It was difficult to get any explanation out of Seven Knott; but finally the tale of the ghostly "clock" on the lower deck was blurted out by the superst.i.tious petty officer.

"What do you mean, a ghost?" growled the ensign. "Don't let me hear of your repeating such nonsense, Hertig. Let me tell you it will interfere with your advance in rating if you do circulate the story. I'll take the matter up with Captain Trevor if I hear anything more about it."

But it was impossible to stop the circulation of such a story on shipboard. Rumor flies from deck to deck on wings. A hint of the strange noise below decks made others besides Seven Knott investigate. Many declared they heard the "tick-tock" sound.