"What"s this, what"s this?" shouted the captain, running to the deck in his pajamas.
"Two men leaving ship in the port dinghy, sir," answered the officer of the deck.
"Step lively there, lads. What does all this mean, Mr. Officer of the deck?"
"I don"t know, sir. The anchor watch discovered that there was something wrong. He"s gone after them, sir."
By this time the captain was leaning over the port rail, training his night gla.s.ses on the dark sea.
"I make them out. Who is the anchor watch?"
"Seaman Davis, sir."
"You say the lad went after them?"
"Yes, sir, so it seems."
"How?"
"He must have gone over the side, for someone just called man overboard."
"The boy will be drowned! Have you ordered any one after him?"
"Yes, sir."
"Hurry, lads. The man may be drowning."
Meantime, Dan was doing his best to overtake the fugitives. The moment he struck the water he threw out his hands to check his descent. This prevented his going under very far. He shot up, and, shaking the water from nose and eyes, struck out for the dinghy that was still moored to the port boom.
He was clambering into the boat within the next minute. His knife, attached to the knife lanyard, was in his hands almost the instant he pulled himself into the boat. One swift stroke severed the line that held the dinghy to the boom.
Dan sprang to the oars; throwing them into place in the locks, he sent the little boat through the water with long, swift strokes.
"Dinghy number two, there!" shouted a voice from the deck.
"Aye, aye, sir," answered Dan.
"You all right?"
"Yes, sir."
"Better come back. The whaleboats will overhaul the other dinghy."
"The whaleboats are on the other side of the ship. By the time they get around here the men will be out of sight. I"m under orders to get them, sir," answered the plucky lad, putting more force into his strokes.
His frail little boat cut the water with a swish and a splash, as the swells slapped its sides, sending showers of spray over him.
Dan now and then turned in his seat, to get the location of the other boat. He could but faintly make it out in the gloom of the night. He was unable to say, as yet, whether he were gaining on the fugitives or not. If he were gaining, it was but slowly.
The whaleboats had not yet rounded the bow of the "Long Island." It seemed to take the boat crews a long time to launch the boats. The captain thought so too, for he was now shouting out his orders with explosive force, having taken command of the operations himself.
"Have an officer go in that boat," he commanded. "Here, ensign," as an officer came up from below on the run, "take charge of those two boats.
If you don"t make haste there you"ll lose the dinghies and the men.
Remember, one man is out there in a little boat chasing two, perhaps, desperate characters."
"Shall we hail Seaman Davis, and order him back to ship?" asked the executive officer.
"That boy would not hear us, even if we were to blow the siren for him.
He is obeying orders, Coates. He"ll do what he was sent to do, no matter what the cost to himself. But the whaleboats should catch up with him in time to be on hand if he comes up with the others. I let him go on because, in that way, we shall keep track of the other boat.
If he does that he will be doing his full duty."
Dan was keeping the other dinghy in sight very well, indeed. He was doing more than that, he was gaining rapidly now. He could hear the splash of the oars in the other boat. The lad smiled grimly, for he knew that the others were rowing badly, perhaps because they were excited. Dan himself was an expert oarsman and every stroke in the race was made to tell.
"Dinghy ahoy, there!" he called when within hailing distance.
The fleeing men made no reply to his hail.
"They are bound to get away. I wonder what it means? It may be that some one has been on board from the sh.o.r.e to steal. No; that cannot be it. It must be men from the ship, for they took a ship"s boat. I"ll bet they are deserters."
He was now within a boat"s length of the other dinghy, directly in its wake. Observing this, the Battleship Boy swung out a little, so as to come alongside of the other boat with several feet of water between the two boats.
"Halt!" he commanded. "You"re caught. I demand that you surrender and cease rowing."
"No surrender. You go back if you know what is good for you."
The voice sounded strangely familiar to Dan Davis.
"I know you!" he shouted exultingly. "I know you now. You"re Blackie.
I"ll bet that"s White in the boat with you. Boys, stop rowing and go back to the ship. It"s the only thing that will save you. I do not know why you have done this thing, but your punishment will be much less severe if you turn about and return at once."
A jeering laugh answered him.
"Then I shall have to take you back, and somebody is liable to get hurt in that operation, I am thinking."
The boy gave his dinghy a sudden quick turn, and with one powerful stroke sent it dashing up to within half a boat length of the other craft.
As he neared it he caught the swing of a body in the first dinghy. Dan ducked, flattening himself in his own frail craft just in time to avoid a vicious swing of the other"s boat hook. The gunwales of his boat saved him from the blow.
Quick as a flash Davis grabbed the boat hook. He gave a violent, sharp pull and the boat hook was in his possession.
"So that"s your game, is it? I"ll show you that two can play that sort of game. You look out, or you"ll get the pole over your own heads."
He drove his boat right alongside the other. At that moment Blackie straightened up with an angry exclamation. At the same time he grabbed an oar from the hands of his companion, making a vicious swing at Dan, who, by this time, was half standing in his own boat.
But Dan had been on the watch for just such villainy. He parried the blow with the captured boat hook.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Dan Parried the Blow With the Captured Boat Hook.]
"Smack, smack, smack!" boat hook and oar came together again and again.