"What is your suggestion as to the plan, then?" asked an officer.
"Gentlemen, in the presence of so many officers of wider experience and greater knowledge, I feel embarra.s.sed to find myself speaking."
"Go on!" cried several.
Darrin still hesitated.
"First of all, Mr. Darrin, in offering your suggestion, tell us what number of British destroyers you believe that you will need to reinforce the American destroyers that are available for protecting your troopship fleet," urged one.
Dave still hesitated, though not from shyness. He did some rapid calculating as to the length of the line of troopships sailing in the regular order. Then he figured out how many destroyers could give efficient protection against sixty German submarines.
There was tense silence in the council room. At last Darrin looked up.
"Well," demanded the insistent British naval staff officer, "how many of our British destroyers do you think, Darrin, are needed to help out your American destroyers?"
Dave turned his face toward the American vice admiral.
"Sir, and gentlemen," he replied, "if we had three times as many destroyers we could use them. I have an opinion on the subject, but it will sound so childish to you that I should prefer to sit back and let older heads offer suggestions."
"Darrin," spoke the flag lieutenant, after a nudge and a whispered word from the vice admiral, "this is no question of age, nor is it wholly a question of experience. Demonstrated ability, ability backed by a record, is ent.i.tled to a hearing here. You have done your figuring, and you have reached certain conclusions. How many British destroyers do you believe we shall need to help out the American destroyer fleet that is now available?"
This amounted almost to an order to speak up. Dave reddened perceptibly, opened his mouth as though to speak, closed it again, then cleared his throat and called out steadily:
"Sir, and gentlemen, it is my opinion that the American naval forces available for the work can do all the work! I do not believe that we need an ounce of British help that would be so graciously extended if we asked for it!"
There was a moment"s silence.
"No help needed from us?" demanded the British naval staff officer.
"It would be welcome, sir," Dave declared, "but you cannot spare the help. Whatever a.s.sistance you gave us at this time would weaken your lines of defense or offense at some other point. They are American soldiers who are to be protected, and--"
Here Darrin"s voice failed him for a moment. He felt as though the more than score of pairs of eyes that were regarding him sharply were burning him. He swallowed hard, but returned to the charge and went on, slowly, in words that rapped like machine-gun fire:
"I would stake my soul that the American Navy can safeguard the pa.s.sage of the One Hundred and Seventeenth Division of the American Army!"
There was a gasp. The words were bold, but, if true, they solved a vexing problem. The spirit of the United States Navy had spoken through Dave Darrin"s lips.
"Darrin," shouted an American staff officer, bringing a fist down on the table, then springing to his feet, "you"ve answered for us! You"ve given us our chart. I"d trust the best troopship fleet we"ll ever send over the ocean to the guarding care of a dozen young Yankee naval commanders of your stripe."
In an instant the enthusiasm became infectious. A cheer arose, in which the vice admiral joined. The British naval officer of the booming tones left his seat and went over to grasp Dave"s hand.
"Darrin, I wish we had you in our Navy!" he said, simply.
There was little more left to be agreed upon. It was decided, however, that a combined fleet of British and American patrol boats should be in readiness to swoop down and save lives in case any of the American troopships should be torpedoed.
The council soon broke up. All that was now left to be done was for the vice admiral and his immediate staff to formulate the exact plans for the protection of the One Hundred and Seventeenth Division. Even after the destroyer fleet had turned itself loose on its task, further instructions could be sent in wireless code.
"Gentlemen," said the vice admiral, rising, "I thank you for your attendance, for your consideration of the problem, and for whatever help you have been able to extend. And I can see no objection," he added, a twinkle in his eyes, "to your giving three cheers for Lieutenant-Commander Darrin."
Proud? Not a bit. As the volleys of cheers rang out deafeningly, Dave Darrin felt as though he would enjoy sinking through the deck.
But Danny Grin was there, and he undertook the job of feeling proud for his chum.
CHAPTER VI
THE GLOW-WORM OF THE SEA
Out upon the tossing sea once more. It was a wonder that the "Logan" did not sit much deeper in the water, for she carried a most unusual load of ammunition of every useful kind.
Out upon the sea, and seemingly alone at that. Not a sail was visible to the officers on the taut little destroyer, not a trail of smoke appeared on any part of the horizon. Indeed, the present speed and low fuel consumption aboard the "Logan" allowed only the thinnest wisps of smoke to issue from the raking funnels of the destroyer.
Had Dave needed other destroyer company, for any urgent reason, a signal snapping from his radio aerials would bring one, perhaps two, American destroyers to him within an hour. For some of these bulldog little fighting craft, that were out after the deep-sea pests, were capable of making more than thirty knots an hour.
The "Logan" had been out four days. Though headed westward at this moment, she had not been moving steadily westward, for she was now not more than three hundred and thirty miles west of the coast of Ireland.
On this fourth day, as on its predecessors, the destroyer steamed along at cruising speed. Though the crew knew nothing of Germany"s proposed big submarine drive directed at the troopships conveying the One Hundred and Seventeenth Division, yet every marine and sailor felt that something unusual was in the wind. The lookouts had been instructed to aid their vision by the free use of their marine gla.s.ses and precautions out of the ordinary had been taken in other directions.
"The Germans are using a new submarine periscope, slimmer than any that they have heretofore employed. They hoist it for only a few seconds at a time and do not send it as far out of the water as they did with the old style periscope. The man who sights a periscope in time will save our ship."
That was the word constantly pa.s.sed about by the "Logan"s" officers.
Every sailor hoped that he might be the lucky one to discover a periscope in time to lead to the bombing of one of the pests.
Dave had reached the bridge at seven bells. Dalzell was now below, sleeping as soundly as though he were back in the old home town of Gridley. Lieutenant Curtin was on the bridge watch.
"It"s odd, Mr. Curtin, that we haven"t sighted a submarine in four days; that we haven"t had the slightest visible reason to suspect the presence of one," Dave remarked to his subordinate officer.
"Very likely, sir, we"re too far out," Curtin replied.
"Yet we have every reason to believe that they"ve extended the danger zone further westward," Darrin continued.
"That"s the belief of the fleet commander," Curtin answered, "but there"s always a chance of his having guessed wrong. Why isn"t it just as probable," he added, in a much lower tone, "that the Huns have decided to have a try at the troopship fleet fairly close to land?"
"It wouldn"t be likely," Dave went on, in an equally low tone. "For one thing, Mr. Curtin, the enemy would want their first try farther out.
Then, if they missed, they"d have another chance, perhaps, closer to land."
"If they missed on their first try, the Huns would have to run their submersibles on the surface in order to overtake the troopship fleet for another chance. They couldn"t travel under water and overtake the troopship fleet."
"Quite right," Darrin admitted in a whisper. "Still, I see another answer to the problem. Of the sixty submersibles believed to be on the job twenty may have been sent far to the westward, the other forty remaining nearer to the coast. The twenty submarines could make a desperate try. Then, if they failed, the remaining forty could take up the job closer to sh.o.r.e."
"Then you don"t believe all the German submarines engaged are concentrated at one point, sir?"
"Impossible to say," Darrin rejoined. "I don"t like to form opinions on any subject without facts to go on."
"It"s strange; not a steamer sighted today," Lieutenant Curtin resumed, after a few moments" scanning of the sea. "During our first three days out we met plenty of armed freighters. Today, not a sail or a stack sighted. Can it be that the subs are further west, and that they"ve overhauled and sunk several freighters?"