"Yes, but with the strictest orders not to use it except to save ship and crew," was Dan"s answer.
Soon after, despite the darkness, the chums were able to make out a steamship ahead, heeled well over to port. And the flashes of a gun were so close to the water as to indicate that a submarine was firing, even before its outlines could be made out.
"The cowardly hounds!" blazed Dave, indignantly. "They"ve got that ship sinking, and all they"re doing is terrorizing the poor wretches aboard by slow, systematic murder!"
"I"ll get them as soon as I have light enough for a gunner"s sight,"
muttered Dan Dalzell. Calling a boatswain"s mate under the bridge, he directed him to hoist a Norwegian flag at the stern, and to bend and hoist the signal:
"We wish to save crew and pa.s.sengers."
"And that"s the truth, too, though perhaps not all of it," snorted Dalzell, all of whose fighting blood had been aroused by the cowardly proceeding going on ahead.
In hoisting the Norwegian flag he was wholly within his rights as a naval commander. Under international law a naval commander is ent.i.tled to hoist any neutral or belligerent flag, including even that of the enemy, in order to maneuver into fighting position. But, before he can fire a shot, the commander must hoist the flag that he actually sails under.
In this instance Dan would give the "Prince" the a.s.sumed character of a neutral merchant ship that desired to play a humane part. No real Norwegian skipper would have been likely to take such a chance, as it would only have invited the destruction of his craft.
Dawn came quickly now. With the first streaks Dan ran up the signal and sailed daringly in. The submarine, which lay ahead, had ceased firing.
The doomed ship took the plunge and vanished, but in three boats and on six rafts a frightened lot of men and women were seeking to get away from Death.
"Lie to and abandon ship!" signalled the German commander, as soon as the presence of the "Prince" was made out.
But Dan, with the range, took the bull boldly by the horns. Opening ports in a jiffy, and with gun crews at quarters on both starboard and port, he gave the firing order.
"Give "em "Chermany over all," and put it all over them!" commanded Danny Grin savagely.
Three sh.e.l.ls left the starboard battery before the astounded German commander had realized that it was a fighting craft that menaced him.
Two of the sh.e.l.ls flew over, striking the water beyond, but the third crashed through the plates of the conning tower, exploding inside and blowing off part of the top of the tower.
No sooner had the guns been fired than Dalzell changed the course to bring the port battery into play.
"Give "em "Chermany over all" all over again!" roared Danny Grin"s voice. "Oh, it"s a great game, don"d it?"
A laugh rose from below, but that laugh was drowned by the joint crash of all the guns of the port battery. Another sh.e.l.l entered the submarine"s tower, and two struck the hull, inflicting more deadly damage.
And now a machine gun began to play over the hull of the sea monster, sending such a storm of bullets that one had to admire the courage-or was it despair?-of a German officer who dared the leaden tempest and sprang from the tower with a white flag, signalling surrender.
"Cease firing!" roared Dalzell through a megaphone. "But load and stand by ready for some German brand of treachery."
Undoubtedly the German officer knew that he stood under the muzzles of loaded guns. His face white and set, he signalled his offer to surrender.
"We"ll accept you as prisoners if you act honestly," was signalled back by Dan"s order. "But we"ll blow you into the air if you try to play a single trick on us."
Acting under further orders a collapsible boat was put over the side of the submarine. The captain, the second-in-command and the engineer officer came over to the "Prince" on the first trip, two men returning with the boat to bring other prisoners. In the meantime the rafts and boats from the sunken ship were turning back to the rescuer.
Barely more than half of the Germans had been gotten clear of the submarine when that unlucky craft foundered. Two survivors were picked up from the sea, but the rest went down into the great salt-water grave.
"Periscope on the port quarter!" rang a lookout"s hail.
Dalzell rushed to the port end of the bridge, gla.s.s to his eyes.
Yes, there was the tell-tale tube above water, some eight hundred yards away, the sun shining on the water drops that clung to it.
"Periscope on the starboard quarter!"
Dan performed a sprint to the starboard end of the bridge, to find the news only too true, though the periscope vanished within a second or two after he had sighted it.
""Ware torpedo, on port quarter!"
Moving like a jumping-jack, Dan"s right hand reached for the lever of the engine-room telegraph. Half-speed ahead! Full speed!
""Ware torpedo on starboard quarter!"
There was no time to observe the torpedo wake traveling toward the "Prince." Dalzell"s orders were based on what he had seen of the locations of the two periscopes.
A sharp, oblique turn to starboard, then a further turn just as the propellers began to kick at full speed.
Both torpedoes pa.s.sed astern, their courses crossing. The maneuver brought the tramp around so that the starboard battery could now be trained on the submersible to the southward.
Her commander, taking desperate chances, rose to the surface to open with his forward gun.
Fatal mistake! Only one gun barked from the "Prince"s" starboard battery, tearing a hole in the Hun"s hull. And now Dalzell completed the turn to give his full attention to the remaining submarine. She, commanded by a more cautious man, had vanished.
Not for long, however, for a line on the water revealed the wake made by the conning tower as she headed straight for the "Prince."
Again Dan"s orders rapped out. The seeming tramp steamer, developing a speed that could not have been looked for, maneuvered so as to run, bow-on, at the submersible.
The craft to the southward was sinking, but the one to the northward was coming straight. A light streak on the water shot out in advance of her while the "Prince" was making her turn. Seeing that he was bound to miss, the Hun commander let loose with his other tube. The "Prince"
completed her maneuver, and now showed only her bow to the enemy, her hull standing away in a straight line between the courses of the two torpedoes, which dashed on by her and were lost in the distance.
As the craft were rapidly nearing each other, Dan, by the aid of his marine gla.s.s, located exactly the beginning, or nearer end, of the conning tower"s wake.
"She may submerge and come up astern of you!" muttered Dave Darrin.
"We"ll see!" ground out Dalzell, between his teeth, still holding the gla.s.s to his eyes.
There was no question of getting the range, for the two craft were lessening the distance, altering it, every second that pa.s.sed.
Still Dan headed on, knowing that the enemy could submerge and change her course at greater depth.
"I"ve got only one chance in a million to get that rascal!" Dalzell growled to his chum.
"And apparently the enemy has all the other chances in the million-but it"s a great game!" cried Dave Darrin.
Dan held on steadily, his motto "Win or sink!"