The Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet Part 7

Jack saluted and lowered away into the conning tower hatch. As he climbed down into the hull he heard the sound of heavy cannonading across the water. It was certain now that a running fight was in progress and that behind the veil of the black German destroyer smoke were allied warships.

The retreating column was well off the port bow and racing eastward toward the shelter of the big guns at Heligoland. Coming up out of the south the American submarine had run at right angles into the line of the Hun retreat. The _Dewey_ held a strategic position. She viewed the approaching squadron as though looking down the hypotenuse of the angle. The Germans were speeding along the base. The _Dewey_ had but to slip down the perpendicular to intercept the panicky Prussians.

And that was just what Lieutenant McClure proposed doing. All hands were ordered below and the hatches sealed. Running on the surface, the oil engines were put to their best endeavor and the _Dewey_ cleft the whitecaps at her best speed.

"Go forward, Mr. Hammond, and inquire of Chief Gunner Mowrey how many torpedoes we have aboard," ordered Lieutenant McClure.

Jack hurried away and returned in a few minutes to report that all four tubes were loaded and two auxiliary Whiteheads in the racks.

The _Dewey's_ torpedo range was two miles, but her commander preferred to be within less than six hundred yards for a sure shot.

McClure could now see the leader of the German squadron---a powerful battle cruiser---crowding on all speed. His guns astern, powerful fourteen-inch pieces in twin turrets, were in action, firing huge salvos at his pursuers. The destroyer rode far to starboard of the cruiser, emitting a steady stream of smoke designed to blind the eyes of the pursuers.

Jockeying into position after another twenty minutes' run, the _Dewey's_ commander decided to let loose with a torpedo. The cruiser had pulled up now until it was nearly dead ahead of the American submersible. The destroyer was dancing along several hundreds yards in the rear of the cruiser.

So intent were the Germans on keeping away from the pursuing warships that they had not noticed the sly little submarine that had slipped up out of the south!

Jack had now an opportunity to witness the actual firing of a torpedo at an enemy vessel at close range. Directly in front of the _Dewey's_ commander, just above the electric rudder b.u.t.ton, glowed four little light bulbs in bright red---one for each of the torpedo tubes in the bow bulkhead. When they were lighted thus it indicated that every chamber was loaded. As soon as a torpedo was discharged the bulb corresponding with the empty tube faded out. Lieutenant McClure had but to touch the electric contact under each bulb to send one of the death-dealing torpedoes on its way. This Jack was to see in a moment.

Crouching with his eyes to the periscope until the racing German cruiser drew up to the desired fret on the measured gla.s.s McClure clutched the lower port toggle and released a torpedo. Again the jarring motion that indicated the discharge of the missile and the swirl of the compressed air forward. Through the eye of the forward periscope the commander of the _Dewey_ followed the course of the torpedo as it skimmed away from his bow.

"There she goes!" exclaimed Executive Officer Cleary as the mirror reflected the frothing wake of the giant Whitehead.

For a moment or so there was a breathless silence in the conning tower of the Yankee sub as the two officers followed their shot.

Only for a moment however, for Commander McClure, knowing full well the German destroyer would sight the speeding torpedo and immediately turn its fire on the Yankee's periscopes, gave orders to submerge.

But as the _Dewey_ lowered away he gazed ahead once more. The spectacle that greeted him made the blood leap fast in his veins.

"It's a hit!" he yelled in sheer delight.

So it proved. Officer Cleary, still straining at the reserve periscope, beheld the same picture. The torpedo had shot across the bow of the destroyer and leaped forward to finally bury its steel nose in the great gray side of the cruiser.

"Almost directly amidships," called out "Little Mack."

And then, as the _Dewey_ plunged beneath the waves, Lieutenant McClure explained eagerly how he had beheld the explosion of the torpedo just aft the main forward battery turret directly on the line of the forward smoke funnel.

"Giving them a dose of their own medicine," e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Cleary as his commander turned laughingly from the periscope.

"This will settle a few scores for the Lusitania, to say nothing of the many more ships with defenseless men and women that have been sunk since the beginning of the war," added McClure seriously. Then turning to Jack Hammond he added: "I guess you are the good-luck chap. We got both those Boche boats since I called you into the turret as my aide.

Don't forget, you are to stay right here permanently."

Jack saluted mechanically, but his heart beat high and he could scarce repress an exclamation of delight.

At a depth of sixty feet the _Dewey's_ engines were slowed down and she floated gracefully out of range of the German destroyer. After traveling ahead for half a mile the submersible was stopped again and began slowly to ascend.

As the eye of the periscope projected again out of the sea Lieutenant McClure hastened to get a glimpse of his surroundings.

There, off the port bow, lay the crippled German cruiser---the same vessel that had been hit by the _Dewey's_ torpedo. She was listing badly from the effect of the American submarine's unexpected sting and had turned far over on her side. A British destroyer was standing by rescuing members of the Teuton crew as they flung themselves into the water from their overturning craft.

Far off the _Dewey's_ starboard bow could be seen a moving column of warships---the remnants of the German raiding fleet in the van, followed by the English and American patrol vessels.

"Useless for us to follow them," declared McClure, as he took in the situation. "Might as well stand by this stricken Hun cruiser and pick up some of her floating crew."

"There's a lot of them in the water," said Cleary, as he swung the other periscope to scan the open sea well to the sinking cruiser's stern.

In a few minutes the _Dewey_ ascended and made herself known to the British "limey." Over the decks of the latter clambered several score German seamen who had been fished from a watery grave.

A stiff wind had come up out of the southeast and was kicking the sea into rollers with whitecaps. However, the men of the _Dewey_, armed with life preservers, steadied themselves on the turtle-back deck of their craft, and started the hunt for swimming Germans.

Ted had joined Jack forward, carrying a coil of rope, and they were scanning the sea, when their attention was diverted by the gesticulations of Bill Witt standing well forward. He was pointing off to port.

"Look---a floating mine!" he shouted. Almost at the same moment Jack spied another mine closer up off the starboard quarter.

In a mine field! The retreating German warships had strewn the sea with the deadly implements of naval warfare, and the _Dewey_ had come up almost on top of a number of the unanch.o.r.ed explosives!

CHAPTER VIII

A RESCUE

"If one of them pill boxes b.u.mps us on the water line it's all day with your Uncle Sam's U-boat _Dewey_," vouchsafed Bill Witt as he stood surveying the mine field into which they had stumbled.

In response to the warning from the lookout forward, Lieutenant McClure had stopped the submarine and was taking account of the dangers that beset his ship. The sea was running high and it was hard to discern the mines except when they were carried up on the swell of the waves.

Swept along thus with the rise and fall of water, one of the floating missiles seemed now bearing down upon the _Dewey's_ port bow. Lieutenant McClure saw it just as a huge wave picked up the whirling bomb and carried it closer up toward the submarine.

"All hands below; ready to submerge!" he called out sharply, at the same time directing Executive Officer Cleary to get the _Dewey_ under way.

"Stay here with me a moment," continued McClure, addressing Jack. They were standing alone on the forward deck.

Another wave brought the mine dangerously close.

"You armed?" called out Lieutenant McClure.

"Yes, sir," replied Jack, as he drew his heavy navy automatic.

"Shoot at that mine, boy," commanded the officer. At the same time the young lieutenant drew his own weapon and began blazing away. He hoped thus to explode the deadly thing before it was hurled against the _Dewey_.

Jack followed suit. The target, however, was so buffeted about by the waves that it was next to impossible to sight on it. The only thing to do was to fire at random, hoping against hope that a lucky shot would result in the detonation of the mine.

"It's no use," shouted McClure above the crack of the firearms and the roar of the sea.

Their shots were rattling harmlessly off the metallic sides of the mine.

By now Cleary had swung the _Dewey_ around until she was pointed almost directly at the nearest mine, it being slightly off the port quarter.

The engines had been reversed and started, and the submarine was drawing away.