Mr. Labenstein, to credit him with the name on the pa.s.senger list, gave a look around, and, seeing that there was no danger, at once went below again.
"Wonder how Blake"s making out?" asked Charlie of Joe, as they walked the deck. "Do you think we"d better go down?"
"Not until we get some word from him. h.e.l.lo! Here he is now!" and Joe pointed to their friend coming toward them.
"Well?" asked Joe significantly.
"Nothing much," answered Blake. "He was as nice and affable as he always is. Just talked about the war in general terms. Said the Allies and Uncle Sam were sure to win."
"Did he want anything?" asked Charlie. "He said he was going to ask a favor, you know."
"Well, he hinted for information as to what we were going to do on the other side, but I didn"t give him any satisfaction. Then he wanted to know whether we would consider an offer from the French Government."
"What"d you say to that?"
"I didn"t give him a direct answer. Said I"d think about it. I thought it best to string him along. No telling what may be behind it all."
"You"re right," agreed Joe. "Lieutenant Secor will bear watching. Did he have any idea we were observing him?"
"I think not. If he did, he didn"t let on. But I thought sure, when he came across the corridor and knocked, that he"d discovered us."
"So did I, and I was all ready to bluff him out. But we"ll have to be on the watch, and especially on the other side."
"What do you mean?" asked Blake.
"Well, I have an idea he"s after our films, the same as he was before, either to spoil them or get them for some purpose of his own. Just now we aren"t taking any, and he hasn"t any desire, I suppose, to get possession of the unexposed reels. But when we begin to make pictures of our boys in the trenches, and perhaps of some engagements, we"ll have to see that the reels are well guarded."
"We will," agreed Blake. "What was going on up here? We heard a racket, and Labenstein rushed up half dressed."
"Lifeboat spilled--no harm done," explained Charlie. "Well, I might as well take this camera below if we"re not going to use it."
"Come on, Blake," urged Joe. "They"re going to have gun drill. Let"s watch."
The vessel carried four quick-firing guns for use against submarines, one each in the bow and stern, and one on either beam. The gunners were from Uncle Sam"s navy and were expert marksmen, as had been evidenced in practice.
"Are we in the danger zone yet?" asked one of the two young women whose acquaintance Blake and Joe had made through the courtesy of Captain Merceau.
"Oh, yes," Blake answered. "We have been for some time."
"But I thought when we got there we would be protected by warships or torpedo-boat destroyers," said Miss Hanson.
"We"re supposed to be," replied Joe. "I"ve been looking for a sight of one. They may be along any minute. Look, there comes a messenger from the wireless room. He"s going to the bridge where the captain is. Maybe that"s word from a destroyer now."
Interestedly they watched the messenger make his way to the bridge with a slip of paper in his hand. And then, before he could reach it, there came a hail from the lookout in the crow"s nest high above the deck.
He called in French, but Joe and Blake knew what he said. It was:
"Periscope ahoy! Two points off on the port bow! Periscope ahoy!"
CHAPTER VIII
BEATEN OFF
Decks that, a moment, before, had exhibited scenes of quietness, though there was a nervous tenseness on all sides, at once a.s.sumed feverish activity. Officers on duty, hearing the cry of the lookout, called to him to repeat his message, which he did, with the added information that the submarine, as evidenced by the appearance of the periscope cutting the water, was approaching nearer, and with great swiftness.
"Here she comes, Blake!" cried Joe, as the two boys stood together at the spot from which they had been watching the wireless messenger a moment before. "Here she comes! Now for a chance at a picture!"
"You"re not going below, are you?" cried Blake.
"Why not?" asked Joe, pausing on his way to the companionway.
"Why, we may be blown up at any moment! We may be hit by a torpedo! I don"t see why they haven"t loosed one at us before this, as their periscope is in sight. You shouldn"t go below now! Stay on deck, where you"ll have a chance to get in the boat you"re a.s.signed to!"
"I"ve got to go below to get the small camera," answered Joe. "I ought to have kept it on deck. I"m going to, after this, to have it ready."
"But, Joe, the torpedo may be on its way now--under water!"
"That"s just what I want to get a picture of! I guess if we"re going to be blown up, being below deck or on deck doesn"t make much difference. I want to get that picture!"
And, seeing that his chum was very much in earnest, Blake, not to let Joe do it alone, went below with him to get the camera. But on the way they met Charlie coming up with it.
"She"s all loaded, boys, ready for action!" cried the lanky Macaroni. "I started down for it as soon as I heard the lookout yell! I didn"t know what he was jabbering about, seeing I don"t understand much French, but I guessed it was a submarine. Am I right?"
"Yes!" shouted Joe. "Good work, Mac! Now for a picture!"
And while Joe and his two friends were thus making ready, in the face of imminent disaster, to get pictures of the torpedo that might be on its way to sink the ship, many other matters were being undertaken.
Pa.s.sengers were being called to take the places previously a.s.signed to them in the lifeboats. Captain Merceau and his officers, after a hasty consultation, were gathered on the bridge, looking for the first sight of the submarine, or, what was more vital, for the ripples that would disclose the presence of the torpedo.
But perhaps the most eager of all, and certainly among the most active, were the members of the gun crews. On both sides of the vessel, and at bow and stern, the call to quarters had been answered promptly, and with strained but eager eyes the young men, under their lieutenants, were watching for the first fair sight of something at which to loose the missiles of the quick-firing guns.
"Give it to her, lads! Give it to her! All you can pump in!" yelled the commander of the squad on the port side, for it was off that bow that the lookout had sighted the periscope.
And while the hurried preparations went on for getting the pa.s.sengers into the lifeboats, at the falls of which the members of the crew stood ready to lower away, there came from the port gun a rattle and barking of fire.
The periscope had disappeared for a moment after the lookout had sighted it, but a slight disturbance in the water, a ripple that was different from the line of foam caused by the breaking waves, showed where it had been.
And by the time Joe and Blake, with the help of Charlie, had set up their small camera, the tell-tale indicator of an undersea boat was again in view, coming straight for the steamer.
"There she is!" cried Blake.
"I see her!" answered Joe, as he focussed the lens of the machine on the object "I"ll get her as soon as she breaks!"
The mewing picture boys, as well as Charlie, had forgotten all about the need of taking their places at the stations a.s.signed to them, to be in readiness to get into a boat. They were sharply reminded of this by one of the junior officers.