The Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet Part 19

"How did you get here?" came the command more sharply.

Still Jack kept silence.

"Search him!" ordered the officer, and after a search that revealed nothing, he added in German:

"Take him away---we'll go into his record later. He's only a boy anyhow, and boy spies are not worth bothering about in this man's war."

Jack was marched off to the ca.n.a.l bank and, following the towpath for a time, the party reached a small fishing village of not more than thirty or forty huts built upon the banks of a stream that Jack realized immediately was the same waterway up which he had made his way to the wireless station. Now he was a mile or more inland from the lagoon and the seacoast.

In the water, moored alongside a wharf, was a huge submarine---one of the latest type of U-boat. This, no doubt, was its hiding place and the rendezvous of other U-boats. Like a flash it occurred to the American boy that he had penetrated, or rather had been escorted, into the heart of one of the submarine bases.

"If I ever get out of this mess," he resolved to himself, "I'll put Uncle Sam wise to this rat hole."

Down into the village he was led and directly to the headquarters of the base officer. The party paused before a cottage that once had been the happy home of a Belgian fisherman. The German lieutenant tapped him on the shoulder and motioned for him to follow. In a moment Jack was ushered into the presence of a corpulent German naval captain with sleepy eyes, who looked without interest at the youthful prisoner and yawned as he heard the story of the capture.

"Shoot the wireless man who fell asleep," he drawled. "Lock up the boy for the present. I'm not in the mood to cross examine a young spy." And yawning again he waved dismissal.

Jack was conducted to an old boat house that in the days before the war had been used by the Belgian fishermen as a repair shop for their fishing craft. He was glad of a chance to rest. The ropes had bound his legs and arms painfully, and his muscles ached from the battering he had received in the sea while making his escape from the _Dewey_. The _Dewey_! Jack thought now of his good old ship and wondered what "Little Mack" and the rest of the boys were doing.

Completely tired out, he climbed into a dilapidated old fishing dory and stretched himself out in the bottom of the boat. Using a tarpaulin for a cover, he made himself as comfortable as possible and dozed off.

So fatigued was he that he slept soundly, unconscious of the activity without, where the moored U-boat was being fitted for another voyage into the North Sea.

It was several hours past noon when he was awakened by the roar of guns, hoa.r.s.e cries of men, and the stamp of feet outside his prison.

As he jumped to his feet and clambered out of the boat a sh.e.l.l burst just over the fish-house, scattering a hail of metal over the flimsy roof and tearing a jagged hole in the wall above the doorway. Running to a window that looked out over the ca.n.a.l wharf, Jack saw Germans scrambling up out of the hold of the U-boat, some of them carrying rifles, others lugging a machine gun. The village was in wild confusion.

"Am I dreaming?" Jack asked himself incredulously, "or is the village being attacked?"

For answer came another sh.e.l.l that ripped its way clean through the frame building in which he was housed, bursting with a roar that brought the flimsy structure crashing down upon the head of the imprisoned boy. Blinded by the dust and splinters, he fought his way madly through the ma.s.s of debris until he emerged clear of the wreck. The first thing he stumbled upon was the body of the German sentry who had been posted outside the guardhouse. He had been struck down by a fragment of the sh.e.l.l and blood flowed from an ugly wound in the head.

Jack paused only long enough to rip off the sidearms and ammunition belt of the stricken German and then ran pell-mell across the open s.p.a.ce that fronted the old guardhouse to one of the village streets up which the stream of German sailors had vanished. As he got an unbroken view up the street and on to the higher ground that stretched away from the village, Jack beheld a pitched battle in progress with a skirmish line stretched out as far as the eye could carry. The Germans had raffled to the defense of their hiding place and had hurriedly thrown up an emplacement for their machine guns.

"Crack---crack----crack!" came the spitting of the rifles, interspersed now and then with the louder detonation of light artillery.

Whoever they were, whether English, French, or American, Jack saw at a glance that the village had been attacked. He thought of the U-boat at the wharf and forthwith decided that his bit in the spectacular drama now being staged was to prevent the escape of the craft.

Hurriedly retracing his steps, he made for the wharf, running at top speed and drawing the revolver he had appropriated from the wounded sentry. As he came dashing down to the wharf he discerned a German at the quay-post endeavoring to cast off the towline.

"Drop that rope!" he commanded. The German turned, saw the approaching boy and the menacing pistol. He threw up his hands instantly.

"Now get aboard as fast as you can," commanded Jack, pointing the way over the gangplank, after he had relieved his captive of a brace of revolvers. Jack followed hard on the steps of the German and once on the deck of the U-boat, ordered the fellow below.

"Close that hatch as you go down and keep it closed," ordered Jack.

"And if there are any more below deck tell them to stay right where they are. If anybody shows head above deck I'll blow out his brains."

Soon Jack was in command of the situation. Making sure that the submarine was securely moored ash.o.r.e, he retreated again to the deck of the U-boat, drawing after him the heavy plank that had been laid down as a gangplank. The battle on the outskirts of the village was still raging with fury. Sh.e.l.ls were bursting all around the submarine. Running to starboard, Jack took up his position directly behind the conning tower with the steel turret between him and the village. Crouching with a revolver in either hand, he kept sharp watch at the closed hatches for any attempted outbreak from within.

Soon they came, pouring in wild retreat down the village street toward the wharf, running pell-mell for the U-boat. At a glance Jack could see the tide of battle had turned against the Germans and they were being worsted. He resolved to stand his ground and prevent the escape of the enemy by way of the submarine.

On they came, a dozen or more of them, heading directly for the U-boat. The leader of the column, looking in vain for the gangplank, called to a companion and together they attempted to swing another timber into position. Leaning around the turret Jack took careful aim and fired. The foremost of the pair threw up his hands and dropped. Maddened at this unexpected turn of affairs, the infuriated Germans began raining a hail of fire at the turret of the U-boat.

Shielding himself as best he could, Jack returned the fire, making a special effort to keep the Germans away from the towline ash.o.r.e.

As he fired again at a skulking figure, Jack felt a sting in his right arm and at the same moment his revolver fell from his fingers and splashed into the ca.n.a.l. He almost despaired of holding out longer when with a great cheer the attacking party burst through the village and hurled themselves upon the remnants of the Germans making their last stand at the wharf.

Risking a glance over the top of the turret between the bases of the periscope poles, Jack was stunned with joy to see the familiar uniforms of the bluejackets and marines of the United States Navy!

CHAPTER XIX

CAPTURING A U-BOAT

The battle at the wharf was of short duration. Completely surrounded and outnumbered ten to one, the party of isolated Germans threw down their arms and surrendered. From his vantage point behind the conning tower of the captured U-boat Jack kept tabs on the struggle until all firing had ceased and he was sure the Germans had been completely subjugated. The cheering of his rescuers apprised him of the defeat of the enemy. Walking out on the deck of the U-boat, he pulled off his hat and welcomed his deliverers with a l.u.s.ty yell.

His sudden appearance from behind the conning tower of the U-boat completely nonplussed his friends for a moment. The bluejackets wheeled at the sound of his voice and a dozen rifles were trained on him in an instant.

"Don't fire!" yelled Jack. "I'm Jack Hammond of the U.S.S. _Dewey_."

For a moment the blue jackets paused---and then pandemonium broke loose.

"Hurrah, hurrah for Jack Hammond!" they shouted. Hastily a gangplank was thrown out to the captive U-boat and Jack ran ash.o.r.e only to be surrounded by his fellow-countrymen and fairly lifted off his feet.

"We've heard all about you---how you escaped from the U-boat and called for help from the German wireless station. Bully for you, Jack Hammond; Uncle Sam can be proud of you," cried a sergeant of marines, who was gripping his hand with a clasp of steel.

Through the crowd of sailors and marines at that moment came a slender lad who elbowed his way forward with the ruthless violence of a fullback determined upon a touchdown. Right and left he tossed the bluejackets until he had fought to the side of the rescued American in the center of the group.

"Jack!" he yelled in delight.

"Ted!" cried the other almost in unison.

Unabashed, the two old Brighton chums embraced each other like two school girls just back for the fall term after summer vacation.

"Gee, chum, I never expected to see you again!" exclaimed Ted as he released his companion from a regular bear hug.

"Nor I you, either," said Jack. "Tell me, what happened to the _Dewey_?

How did you get out? Where is McClure and all the rest of the crew?

How did you get here?"

Jack was so excited thinking of his old friends he forgot his own part in the stirring incidents of the last few hours, and his own injury, as he insisted on hearing the whole story from his old roommate.

"I'll tell you pretty soon; everybody is safe and all O.K.," answered Ted. And then he beheld the blood dripping from Jack's wounded arm.

"Wait a moment; what's wrong here?" he exclaimed, lifting the arm tenderly and disclosing to the view of the excited group of Americans a wound just above the wrist.

"Oh, it's just a scratch on the arm; one of the Boches nipped me while I was out there on the U-boat deck waiting for you fellows to come down through the village," he replied lightly, trying to minimize his injury.

A first-aid kit was produced and the wound hurriedly dressed. It seemed to be but a slight flesh wound. In the midst of the dressing a great shrapnel sh.e.l.l burst just on the other side of the ca.n.a.l and threw some of its fragments into the water just beyond the U-boat.

At the same moment was heard the whirr of an airplane motor overhead and very shortly a hand bomb crashed to earth not more than two hundred yards up the ca.n.a.l towpath, exploding with a terrible detonation and tearing up a fearful hole in the ground.

"The German guns are all in action now," said Ted as he watched the airplane circling above the U-boat base.