The Battleship Boys' First Step Upward Part 41

All at once from the water right at the side of one of the fishing boats the torpedo emerged. It missed the boat by a matter of inches only, but the tail of the projectile hooked the keel. Like a flash the fishing boat turned over and the men were scrambling in the water.

"Drive in there, full speed!" commanded Dan.

"We'll get fouled in the fish nets."

"Never mind the nets. Those men may drown. Drive in there, I say!"

The man at the wheel did as the Battleship Boy had ordered him to.

"Now, slow down. Drift in."

A moment more and the life lines shot out, a half dozen wet and angry fishermen being hauled aboard the motor boat. The men were fighting angry.

Shaking the water from their clothes, they started for Dan with angry imprecations. Not only had they been upset, but they discovered that the truant torpedo was driving through their nets. Yells of rage from the fishermen in other boats told Dan that they, too, had discovered what was occurring.

On went the torpedo, ripping net after net. It seemed bent upon destruction, for, after pa.s.sing through all the nets in its course, it turned almost squarely about and dived through the rest of the nets.

Every net, with its burden of fish, was utterly destroyed.

Dan grabbed up a boat hook as he saw the rescued men meant business.

"Stand back!" he commanded. "I'll smash the first one of you who comes forward. Ahoy there, fishing boats. Come up here and take these men off, and no nonsense about it, either."

The men hesitated.

"Throw him overboard!" cried a more turbulent spirit.

"Try it, if you want to, men, but I warn you this is a government boat.

If you commit an a.s.sault on board, or on one of its crew, you will be in for a long term in a federal prison. Think you want to take that chance?"

That settled it. The men realized that the young sailor was right, and their anger cooled almost at once.

"The government will pay you for all the damage done to your nets, as you well know. Draw alongside here," he commanded to one of the boats.

"Back out, c.o.xswain. We are drifting around into the nets."

Dan wig-wagged to one of the whaleboats, asking them to row in and make fast to the torpedo, for his own boat could get in no further. The fishermen, thinking he was signaling for a.s.sistance, did not wait for the fishing boat that was coming to take them off. They sprang overboard and swam for the boat.

"You didn't have to do that," called Dan. "You'll be saying next that we made you jump overboard."

The whaleboat made fast to the torpedo very quickly; then one of the steamers towed the huge projectile back to the ship, where it was hoisted aboard.

For the next shot the motor boat took up its station down nearer to the ship, about half way between the end of the range and the battleship.

Orders from the ship were to have the whaleboats take positions at the end of the course. They, being of lesser draught, could get in closer to sh.o.r.e and could get the torpedo out in case it drove into shallow water as before.

Near by lay steamer number two with twelve men and an ensign on board.

Both the motor boat and the steamer cruised slowly about while waiting for the red flag to go up on the signal halyard, warning them that another shot was about to be fired.

"Lay back farther," came the signal from the battleship.

"Motor boat or steamer?" wig-wagged Dan.

"Both."

"Steamer there!" called Dan.

"Aye, aye."

"Battleship orders you to lay back farther, and to keep off the course."

The steamer shifted its position, and Dan's boat pulled farther away, at the same time moving off a little more toward the sh.o.r.e. The two boats were now on opposite sides of the course that the torpedo was expected to travel, though one can never be sure just where these instruments of war are likely to go.

"Battleship under way," signaled Dan to the other small boats out on the field.

For a time he watched the warship that was heading for the other side of the bay. Finally the ship turned and started back, with a big, white "bone between her teeth," as the saying goes when a ship is plowing up the sea.

"Red flag going up," called the signal boy. "Wherry, there, ordered to lay to starboard of the target," he signaled to the little boat dancing on the waves half a mile away.

The small boat quickly took its position as ordered from the ship.

The siren blew a long blast, and with eyes turned toward the ship, all the boat crews pulled back to a safe distance.

"Torpedo on the way," signaled Sam Hickey from his position on the ship.

"Torpedo under way," wig-wagged Dan Davis to the other boats. "Get under way, the battleship signals," he told the little fleet.

At the same time the motor boat started along the course that the torpedo was expected to follow, the small steamer a little in the lead.

"She's running close to the surface," muttered the Battleship Boy, watching the projectile. "I can see the water spurting from her bows.

She'll never complete the run."

He turned to look at the steamer. He observed that she was at right angles to the course.

"Sheer off! Sheer off!" shouted Dan. "You're right on the course.

You'll be hit!"

"We're disabled. Motor boat, there!" shouted the ensign in the small steamer.

"Aye, aye, answered Dan.

"Lay over and help us out. We've thrown our propeller."

"Full speed ahead. May I take the tiller?"

The acting c.o.xswain good-naturedly stepped aside, Dan taking the steering wheel of the motor boat from his hands.

The lad's eyes traveled rapidly from the advancing torpedo to the steamer that was rolling on a heavy swell, her crew of more than a dozen men leaning over the side, straining their eyes to make out the torpedo.

"She's going to strike us, sir," shouted the c.o.xswain.

"Can't help it," answered the ensign. "All hands be ready to go overboard when I give the command. Some of us will be caught. We don't know where she is going to hit us."