The Boy Allies Under the Sea; Or, The Vanishing Submarines

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Boy Allies Under the Sea, by Robert L. Drake
AUTHOR OF The Boy Allies in the Baltic , The Boy Allies on the North Sea Patrol , The Boy Allies Under Two Flags , The Boy Allies with the Flying Squadron , The Boy Allies with the Terror of the Seas
What I would like to know, said Frank Chadwick, is just how long England intends to put up with the activities of the German submarines in the waters surrounding the British Isles.
How long? echoed Jack Templeton. Surely you know that England is already conducting a vigorous campaign against them.
I don't seem to have heard anything of such a campaign, returned Frank dryly; but another big liner was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Ireland yesterday. What are we going to do about it? That's what I want to know.
I'll tell you a little something you don't seem to know, said Jack. In the last thirty days, in the neighborhood of a hundred German submarines have disappeared—sunk or captured—no one seems to know which. Nevertheless, it is a fact. Through diplomatic channels word has been received in London that a large number have failed to return to their bases. The German government is much disturbed.
Where have they gone? asked Frank, with some surprise.
I don't know. Nobody knows—unless, perhaps, a few high government officials. They have just naturally disappeared—vanished.
How do you know all this?
I happened to hear Lord Hastings discussing it with Mr. Churchill while you were out the other day.
But, of course, Mr. Churchill knows what has happened to the submarines.
Of course; but he's not telling everything he knows.