"Have either of you gentlemen a revolver?" demanded Commander Ennerling of his subordinate officers.
Neither of them had. Nor had any of the submarine"s own people.
"Hm!" muttered the commander, grimacing. "This is a fine Naval outfit to lay alongside of a craft that has a mutiny aboard!"
"Do you want to hail, or try to board the yacht?" inquired Jacob Farnum.
"I think we"d better run alongside and hail that crowd," answered Commander Ennerling. "Yet, if it comes to it, we"ll have board!"
Three shots flashed out, amidships, on the yacht, showing that the fire was directed towards the stern. Two shots from the two men aft replied.
No one appeared to have been hit.
"We"ll have to fight if we"re to be of any use," muttered Ennerling.
"With our fists, too, confound the luck!"
They were now rapidly overhauling the yacht. It was with throbbing pulses that Captain Jack Benson steered the "Pollard" up alongside.
CHAPTER XVI
FIGHTING A MUTINY WITH THREATS
Hal Hastings came springing out of the conning tower with a megaphone.
Jack, with a final swing of the wheel, brought the "Pollard" in on a course parallel with the steam yacht, and not more than two hundred feet away from the other vessel"s port rail.
At the same moment Benson rang the signal bell for reduced speed, so that the sterns of the two craft were kept almost on a line with each other.
"Ahoy, yacht!" bellowed the commander, through the megaphone. "Any trouble aboard?"
"Mutiny!" hoa.r.s.ely shouted the white-haired man, turning his head only enough to send the word.
"It looks like it," agreed Commander Ennerling. "We are United States Naval officers, aboard a torpedo boat. The mutiny must stop. Shut off your speed, and send a boat over here. My order is addressed to the mutinous crew."
Two of the mutineers were hiding behind a mast, three more behind the forward end of the after deck house. Just how many more there were, could not be clearly made out by those on board the "Pollard," for some had undoubtedly crouched below the deck bulwarks.
But one man among the mutineers possessed the rough courage to advance to the rail, shouting in a husky voice:
"You go on your way, and mind your own business, Mr. Navy!"
"Stop that mutiny and submit to your officers," insisted Commander Ennerling, sternly. "Do you want us to come aboard and wipe you out to the last man?"
"You can"t board us, from a craft of that kind," jeered the fellow at the yacht"s rail.
"You"ll find we can, if we have to."
"Come along, then!"
"Do you realize, my man, that we are United States Naval officers?"
"Not when I can"t see your uniform," laughed the mutineer, roughly.
"I"m not going to argue with you any more. I"ve given you my orders.
Do you intend to submit, or will you fight?"
"We"ll fight!" roared the mutineer. A hoa.r.s.e cheer went up from his comrades.
"They don"t estimate our fighting power very highly," muttered Ennerling, in a low tone. "If they knew the whole truth they"d be still less afraid of us."
From the mutineer at the rail came another hoa.r.s.e hail:
"Shove off and get away, or we"ll rush the crowd aft and wind up the women! You start a fight if you think you can. If you know you can"t, then get away. We"re not afraid until we"re killed."
Now, eight mutineers, in all, lined across the deck, each man showing a revolver.
"Humph! We"ve got to fight--and can"t!" muttered Commander Ennerling, in great disgust.
"We can save those women," muttered Jack Benson, "if they"ve the nerve to help themselves be saved."
"How?"
"Hal Hastings and I can swim over, and can hold the women up if they have the nerve to leap overboard."
"Those brutes might fire on you, and the women, but it"s worth trying,"
decided the Naval officer, instantly. "Over with you, then!"
Captain Jack waited only long enough to shed coat and cap, then sprang to the rail. Hal was with him, instantly.
"Sir," bellowed Commander Ennerling, "Have your women folks jump overboard. We"ll pick them up in the water. Be quick about it!"
There were a few hurried words in the little group of four aft on the steam yacht. Then, with the "Pollard" running in closer, so that a bare fifty feet separated the two craft--Mr. Farnum at the submarine"s wheel--Jack Benson plunged overboard, followed by Hal. The girl aboard the yacht leaped at once, the older woman following quickly.
"Get us, too, if you can," shouted the white haired man at the yacht"s stern. "We can swim a little."
Both craft were still going ahead at about fourteen knots, but, as the two men jumped Lieutenant Commander Briscoe and Lieutenant McCrea plunged overboard to get them.
Now Jacob Farnum rang for the reversing of the engine, and the submarine, first pausing, began to glide backward, then stopped altogether.
From the steam yacht went up another hoa.r.s.e cheer, the mutineers dancing like demons, discharging their revolvers into the air. All this while the yacht steamed steadily away from the scene.
The girl was sinking for the second time as Jack Benson, with a forward swoop, shot one arm under her.
"You won"t go down now," he called, cheerily. "Keep cool and just do what I ask you."
The older woman, buoyed up by a greater spread of skirts, had not sunk below the surface at all by the time that Hal Hastings reached her.