The Fight for Constantinople Part 26

"Good!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the Lieutenant-Commander, as the submarine swung round till her bow pointed due north. "Now that is much more reasonable."

During the next hour the steamer zigzagged considerably. It was safe to conclude that she was threading her way through the intricate minefield that guarded the southern outlet of the Bosphorus.

A long-drawn-out wail upon the syren of the Turkish vessel, followed by four shrill blasts, announced that she was approaching her anchorage.

Dearly would Huxtable have liked to bring the periscope of his craft to the surface, but he resolutely resisted the temptation.

The unwitting pilot was slowing down; it was time for the submarine to "part company", for the water was shoaling considerably. To follow the steamer farther would result in the British craft being exposed to the danger of being rammed by pa.s.sing vessels, since the needle of the depth-indicator was already hovering around thirty-five feet.

"I might have guessed that she would not be likely to bring up in deep water," remarked the Lieutenant-Commander to d.i.c.k, referring to the steamer, the paddle-beats of which were growing fainter and fainter.

"It was a chance, of course, but it didn't exactly come off."

"At any rate she piloted us in very nicely," said Crosthwaite.

"If we are in the Golden Horn, yes," admitted Huxtable. "But are we?

All we can do is to wait until just after sunset, and then take a quick look round. The place seems too jolly quiet for Constantinople. I haven't heard the thud of an engine since we dropped the steamer, or the steamer dropped us--whichever way you like to take it."

In order to make doubly certain that there was no maritime traffic in the vicinity, the Lieutenant-Commander enjoined silence for the s.p.a.ce of five minutes. With his ear against the concave side of the submarine's hull he waited and listened intently. Not a sound was to be heard, for already the British craft's motors had been switched off, and she was now lying motionless in ten fathoms on the bed of the sea.

Slowly the hours pa.s.sed until the time of sunset drew near, then once more the crew were called to their stations. As coolly as if engaged in evolutions in the piping times of peace the Lieutenant-Commander gave his orders.

"Charge firing-tank; flood torpedo-tubes; stand by."

The men at the torpedo-tubes obeyed with alacrity, yet wonderingly, for the sanguineness of their young skipper in ordering the torpedoes to be placed in the tubes before he was even certain that an enemy was in sight puzzled them.

Moving very slowly ahead, the submarine rose till her periscope just showed above the surface. Even Huxtable in his most optimistic mood did not expect the sight which met his gaze as he looked at the dazzling object-bowl of the periscope. There, clearly depicted, was a large cruiser flying the Turkish flag. She was within two hundred yards of the submarine, and at about a like distance from the northern sh.o.r.e of a broad creek. The cruiser was not in a position of defence.

Her sun awnings were still rigged, her torpedo-nets not out; even her fo'c'sle and quarter-deck guns were trained fore and aft, and still had their tompions in the muzzles. Nor were there any signs that she had steam up.

"All clear, sir!" reported Sub-lieutenant Devereux, who, stationed at the supplementary periscope, had swept the limited horizon to certain that no hostile destroyer or patrol-boat in the vicinity.

"Both tubes--fire!" ordered the Lieutenant-Commander.

He made no attempt to dive as the two missiles left their tubes. He had sufficient reason to believe that the Turks would be too panic-stricken to attempt to fire at their a.s.sailant.

To his satisfaction he noted, as he watched the diverging white line of foam that marked the of the torpedoes, that both weapons were heading straight for the mark with a velocity almost approaching that of an express train.

A Turkish seaman on the fo'c'sle, gazing idly at the water, was the first of the crew of the wars.h.i.+p to notice the impending danger. Even then he did not realize the situation, for the possibility of a torpedo fired from a submarine in strongly-guarded waters never occurred to him until the missiles were almost home.

He gave the alarm. The apathetic officers and seamen did nothing, for it would have been useless to attempt to ward off the blow; but in sheer panic they rushed to the side farthest from the approach of danger.

Both torpedoes struck almost simultaneously and within thirty feet of each other. The cruiser reeled as a double column of water was hurled into the air to a height of nearly two hundred feet. Almost before the artificial waterspout had subsided the s.h.i.+p was settling rapidly by the stern.

Even then Huxtable made no attempt to dive. He was content to keep the periscope above the level of the sea and to watch the disappearance of the stricken vessel.

Not a shot was fired from the cruiser. The whole energies of officers and crew were diverted towards their own safety. Panic prevailed, for in their mad rush to launch the remaining boats men fought each other, their shouts of anger and shrieks of despair outvying the hiss of the escaping air from the confined s.p.a.ces of the sinking s.h.i.+p. Others, without being given orders, leapt overboard and swam for the sh.o.r.e, till the intervening stretch of water was dotted with the heads of the terrified swimmers.

"What a contrast to the sinking of the _Ocean_!" thought d.i.c.k. "Here they are in fairly shallow water and within easy distance from land, and yet they must fight each other like brutes."

"Destroyers and patrol-boats approaching, sir," reported Devereux, who was still sweeping the limited expanse of view through the after-periscope.

"Very good," replied the Lieutenant-Commander. Then turning to d.i.c.k he added: "I'm jolly glad. We'll have a run for our money, for, hang it!

though war is war, one cannot help feeling just a little sorry to have to sneak up and torpedo an unsuspecting craft."

"She would have sent us to the bottom without the faintest compunction if she had had the ghost of a chance, sir," replied d.i.c.k. "I don't think we need have anything upon our consciences."

"Well, we'll have to be moving," remarked Huxtable, who was taking a leisurely survey of his surroundings.

The cruiser had now sunk. Only the tops of her funnels and her masts were visible. She had been lying at anchor in a fairly broad and widening channel, the sh.o.r.es of which on both sides were dotted with picturesque kiosks, half hidden in cl.u.s.ters of cypress and olive trees.

Beyond the visible relics of the torpedoed s.h.i.+p and the still distant Turkish patrol-craft, there was nothing to denote the presence of war conditions.

"By Jove!" exclaimed Huxtable. "We're miles up the Golden Horn. Those are the houses of Pera we can see in the distance. That paddle-steamer must have piloted us through the bridge of boats between the capital and Galata. Crosthwaite, my boy, we've beaten all records--and we've got to get back."

He gave the order to dive. Before the periscope had time to disappear a column of spray dashed up within twenty yards, as a sh.e.l.l from the nearest destroyer ricochetted and plunged with disastrous results into an elegant summer resort on the bank of the Golden Horn.

Gently feeling her way, lest any large disturbance of the water should betray her position, the submarine made for the Bosphorus; but before she had covered a quarter of a mile she grounded on a bed of slimy mud.

Promptly the Lieutenant-Commander ordered the motors to be switched off. Any attempt to forge ahead would only succeed in churning up vast quant.i.ties of mud by the propellers. All that could be done for the time being was to lie low.

The thud of machinery announced to the crew that the Ottoman destroyers were cruising over their hiding-place, while m.u.f.fled detonations at frequent intervals told them that the Turks were making use of explosive grapnels in the hope of locating and shattering the hull of the British submarine.

"That's a close one!" muttered d.i.c.k, as a sharp detonation resulted in nothing worse than making the submarine roll sluggishly on the mud. It was too close to be pleasant, for, although the water was thick with sediment and effectually precluded daylight from filtering through the observation scuttles, the explosion threw a short blinding flash into the interior of the conning-tower.

It was a time of acute peril and mental strain. At any moment one of the submerged charges of gun-cotton might be exploded actually in contact with the steel hull, the crew of which were helpless to raise even a finger in self-defence. But the expected did not happen.

Apparently satisfied with the result of their operations, the Turkish destroyers and patrol-boats steamed off, and quietude reigned once more on and under the waters of the Golden Horn.

Huxtable was too wily a strategist to move prematurely. It was practically impossible to creep out of the tortuous channel while the submarine was completely submerged. The suspicions of the Turks being aroused, it was equally hazardous to show even a momentary glimpse of the periscope during the hours of daylight. He resolved to lie _perdu_ until nightfall, and then to follow the first steamer that was making for the Bosphorus.

"Let's hope that a deep-draughted craft won't be coming down," he remarked. "There's less than twenty-four feet between the protection girder and the surface. This is one of the occasions when my device has obvious drawbacks."

"It won't hurt us if the steelwork is. .h.i.t by a vessel's keel, sir,"

said Devereux.

"I don't know so much about that," objected the Lieutenant-Commander.

"The sudden wrench might start some of our plates. In any case the ramming craft would stop to investigate."

"Unless she fancied that she'd fouled some of the wreckage of the cruiser we sank," said d.i.c.k.

"Let's hope the Turks will have no necessity to exercise their powers of discernment," said Huxtable. "In any case I want to do a little more damage before we're out of action. But," he added cheerfully, "I have a presentiment that we'll fetch back in safety."

Several hours pa.s.sed in tedious suspense. Numerous steam vessels sped overhead or within hearing distance, for the thud, thud of their engines and the noise of the revolutions of their propellers could be distinctly heard.

"You'd better turn in," suggested Huxtable to d.i.c.k. "There's nothing doing, and you must be awfully tired."

"I feel a bit sleepy," admitted Crosthwaite; "but don't you think you ought to have forty winks, sir?"

"I suppose I'd feel all the better if I did," admitted the Lieutenant-Commander. "Devereux can take charge. He's had his watch below."

Enjoining the Sub-lieutenant of the submarine to call him at the first suspicion of danger, Huxtable pulled off his boots and rolled, just as he was, into his bunk, while d.i.c.k was soon fast asleep in the bed recently occupied by young Devereux.

It seemed as if he had not dozed for more than ten minutes when d.i.c.k was awakened by the purr of the submarine's electric motors. He started up. The officer's cabin was ablaze with light. Devereux, with a bundle of charts under his arm, was making his way along the narrow gangway between the double rows of bunks.