All three sprang forward to the gun. It had already been loaded and a dozen spare sh.e.l.ls were ready alongside.
"This is luck," said Roy in a gleeful whisper, as he ranged himself alongside the gun. He, like the rest, was perfectly well aware that the first shot they fired would bring down on them the concentrated fire of all the batteries on both sh.o.r.es, and that their chances of escape were hardly worth considering. But this did not weigh for a moment, if they were able to strike a blow for the Empire.
The revolutions were increasing, the launch moved more rapidly down upon her quarry.
"Three barges!" exclaimed Roy. "Big "uns, too! I say, there must be tons of stuff aboard. Jove, won"t the Turks be sick?"
"We must get the tug first," said Dimmock, who, though a man of forty, was as keen as a boy. "If we can slap it into her first, we can deal with the barges at our leisure."
As he spoke he was squinting along the barrel, his right hand busy with the sighting screw.
"Hang this fog!" he muttered. "I can hardly see what I"m shooting at."
The launch was now within little more than a hundred yards of the tug which was puffing noisily along, her string of barges tailing heavily down the current, and her crew utterly unaware of the hidden danger gliding down upon them through the fog.
"I"m beastly rusty," continued Dimmock. "Still, I hardly think I can miss her at this range."
As he spoke his finger pressed the electric b.u.t.ton, and the gun barked with that ear-splitting crack peculiar to the 6-pounder.
The tug staggered and rang like an iron drum.
"Not much miss about that!" cried Roy triumphantly. "You must have got her slap in the boilers."
"No, it was too high," said Dimmock in a discontented tone." This gun jumps a bit. Sharp there, with that other sh.e.l.l."
Roy slipped it in as though it were a toy, the breech-block snicked to, and five seconds later a second report roused the echoes.
"That"s better," said Dimmock, as a flash of flame rose from the midships section of the tug. "Ah, there goes her funnel! She"s a goner."
He was right. The tug swung round to the current, and, with engines stopped, drifted idly down the Straits.
"What"s the matter? They haven"t begun to fire yet," said Roy quickly, as he thrust a third sh.e.l.l into the open breech.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "Up shot a sheet of crimson flame."]
"So much the better for us," Ken answered. "Mr Dimmock, this one ought to do for the nearest barge."
Hastily Dimmock sighted again at the blunt, low-lying object which loomed dimly ahead in the wet darkness.
Once more the smart little gun spoke, but the crack of the report had hardly sounded before it was drowned by the most appalling crash. Up from the stricken barge shot a sheet of crimson flame, a blaze of fire which mounted a hundred feet into the murky air, and in spite of fog and mist flung its glare upon the iron cliffs on either side the narrow straits.
The launch shuddered as though she had struck a reef, and the blast from the explosion flung every soul who was standing up flat upon her decks.
Hard upon the roar came a wave, a wave which rose high over the bows of the long, slim craft, and swept across her in a torrent of cold, salt water.
It washed Ken back against the rail, which he clutched at desperately, and so saved himself from going overboard.
Dazed and confused, he struggled to his feet.
"Roy!" he cried thickly, "Roy!"
"All right. We"re all right," came a hoa.r.s.e reply, and Roy"s tall figure rose from close under the opposite rail, and grasping Dimmock, lugged him to his feet.
"Gad, that"s done the trick!" he panted. "The other barges are gone. So"s the tug. We"ve bust the whole caboodle."
From aft came Captain Carrington"s voice, shouting for "Full speed ahead!"
Time, too, for the gunners in the forts, recovering from their paralysed amazement, were already getting busy and the roar of great guns was followed by the rocket-like hiss of sh.e.l.ls.
Like a frightened hare the launch gathered speed and darted away downstream. Sh.e.l.ls, each big enough to smash her to kindling, fell on every side, but the gunners on both sides were firing too high, and by a series of miracles the launch was not touched.
Searchlights sprang out, their white fingers feeling through the murk. But no searchlight ever made will penetrate a thousand yards of fog, and the dull glares only served to warn the steersman of the launch of dangers to be avoided.
"Jove, we"ll do it yet, Ken," cried Roy, shouting so as to be heard above the thunderous din of the guns.
"It will be a miracle if we do," Ken answered. "Remember we have to run the gauntlet all the way down."
"It doesn"t follow," Roy said quickly. "They haven"t seen us, and they"ll take it for granted that it must have been a submarine. Why, even the sweepers haven"t ventured up here."
"I only hope you"re right," replied Ken fervently.
"Ah!" he broke off, as a sh.e.l.l whizzed over so near they felt the wind of it. "That was close."
By this they had pa.s.sed Nagara, and turning due south were rushing past the big fort of Kosi Kale. For the moment the tempest of sh.e.l.l had died away behind them.
"I told you so," said Roy jubilantly. "They"ve chucked it. If we don"t whack into a beastly mine we shall get clear."
Indeed, it almost seemed as though he was right. The firing slackened, then stopped completely, and the launch, still untouched, sped through the gloom. Her crew, almost unable to credit such amazing luck, stood about the decks staring out into the darkness, occasionally exchanging a word or two in low voices.
"We"re in the Narrows," said Ken. "See that luminous patch over to the left. That"s Chanak."
"Almost the same spot where the trawlers were scuppered," answered Roy.
"Just so. If Fort Hamidieh doesn"t open out, we ought really to be all right. We shall be in broader waters." He took out his watch and glanced at its luminous dial.
"In three minutes we shall know one way or the other," he added.
For the next hundred and eighty seconds there was no sound but the steady swish of the bow wave and the beat of the powerful engines.
Ken shut his watch with a snap.
"All right. We"re past."
The words were not out of his mouth before there came a ringing report, and a sh.e.l.l, screaming through the air, smacked into the water about a length astern.
"A twelve-pounder!" said Ken sharply, as he turned. "Ah!" as a blaze of light sprang out about half a mile aft, "that"s why they stopped firing.
There"s a destroyer after us."