The Boy Allies under Two Flags Part 38

"Why--?" began Frank.

"We can't go up again now, can we?" demanded Captain Nicholson.

"We shall have to stay down here until they believe we have escaped. Then we will rise and try to sneak out."

"But surely we are safe enough down here."

"Don't you believe it. They'll trawl for us all day; but luckily for us they don't know we have lost our batteries, so they'll probably search over a wide area, and we run that much more chance of not being discovered."

"But surely no sh.e.l.l would reach us here," said Frank.

"No," replied the commander grimly, "but if they discover us, they are likely to dump a few barge loads of pig iron or something down on us and crush our steel plating."

But the submarine was not discovered by the enemy and remained below the water all the rest of the day "went to sleep on the bottom," as the phrase goes. And that is what literally was done, for all on board were tired out.

An hour after sunset, the Y-3 came once more to the surface.

There was no sign of an enemy. The sky was still banked with heavy clouds, and there was a choppy sea running.

Captain Nicholson started to run for safety at full speed ahead.

Having no batteries for submerged running now, the Y-3 had to remain on top of the water, or else sink to the bottom and lie still; and for this reason Captain Nicholson kept prepared for a quick submersion.

Mines were the worst dangers the Y-3 bad to encounter now, and a careful watch was kept and the speed of the vessel reduced.

Twice the vessel was picked up by the searchlight on the fort, and each time submerged.

But the engines stood up well, and at last Captain Nicholson said quietly to the two lads:

"Well, we're safe at last."

"Good," said Frank, "but I wouldn't have missed this experience for a fortune."

"Nor I," declared Frank.

"You take my advice," said Captain Nicholson, as he headed the Y-3 for the spot where they had left the Sylph almost 40 hours before, "and stay on the top. Don't spend any more time on a submarine than you have to."

CHAPTER XXVI

CRUISING AGAIN

It seemed long hours to Frank and Jack before they once more made out the form of the Sylph, still cruising slowly to and fro close to where they had left her nearly two days before. The submarine drew up to her rapidly, and soon Captain Nicholson ordered a small boat launched.

Into this climbed first a seaman, then Captain Nicholson and Frank and, Jack. Lord Hastings greeted the boys warmly as they dropped over the rail of the Sylph.

"I was beginning to fear something bad gone wrong," he said. "I certainly am glad to see you back safe and sound. Was the raid a success?"

"It was indeed," replied Frank.

"Three Turkish cruisers sent to the bottom," said Jack briefly.

"Good!" cried Lord Hastings enthusiastically. "And the submarine wasn't damaged, eh?"

"Oh, yes, it was," broke in Captain Nicholson, and proceeded to relate the details of the encounter.

"And how did the two lads behave themselves?" questioned Lord Hastings.

"Admirably," was Captain Nicholson's reply. "We were in a pretty ticklish situation for a moment, but they never lost their nerve."

The lads blushed at this praise.

"Well," said Captain Nicholson, after some further talk, "I guess I shall have to say good-bye."

He shook hands all around, and was soon on his way back to his own vessel. Immediately the Sylph was got under way, and proceeded on her course westward. But she had gone hardly a mile when the wireless operator rushed up to Lord Hastings, and handed him a message.

"Relayed by the Gloucester and Terror, Sir," he said.

Lord Hastings read the message:

"Strong German squadron somewhere off coast of South America.

British fleet on watch. Get in touch."

The message was signed by Winston Spencer Churchill, first Lord of the Admiralty.

Lord Hastings pursed his lips and whistled expressively.

"Another long cruise," he said briefly.

Soon the Sylph's head was turned toward the South, and for several days thereafter she pursued her uneventful way down the coast of South Africa. Rounding the Cape of Good Hope, she steamed straight for the distant coast of South America.

Lord Hastings stopped to coal once or twice, and so it was some days before the lookout picked up, land ahead.

"Should be the Argentine coast, if we have not drifted off our course," Lord Hastings informed the two lads.

He was right, and the following day the Sylph put in at one of the small South American ports for coal.

"We'll have the s.h.i.+p looked over a bit," said Lord Hastings. "We are permitted to stay in this, port 24 hours, and at the expiration of that time we must leave or be interned."

It was in this place that Lord Hastings and the members of the Sylph's crew learned of the disaster that had overtaken several British cruisers in those parts. Here, for the first time, they heard of the defeat of a small British squadron by the Germans, and of the death of Admiral Sir Christopher Craddock, who had gone down fighting to the last.

"Never fear," said Lord Hastings, "Sir Christopher's loss shall be avenged, and that shortly, or I am badly mistaken."

The following day the Sylph put to sea again, and headed down the Argentine coast.

It was late the next afternoon, when the wireless operator aboard the Sylph picked up a message.

"German squadron some place near, sir," he said laconically, as he handed a message to Lord Hastings.

The commander of the Sylph glanced at the message. In regular maritime code, it read: