CHAPTER XVIII
THE SINKING OF THE "QUEEN MARY"
Perceiving this move by two vessels that he believed the same as at the bottom of, the sea, so far as fighting purposes went, the German admiral became very angry again.
"A blight on these English!" he exclaimed. "Don't they know when they are beaten?"
Certainly it seemed not, if the Admiral's version that they were defeated was correct.
The Queen Mary and the Indefatigable steamed after the enemy at full speed.
Jack had relinquished his duties in the gun turret to more experienced hands and had joined Frank on deck. To some extent the forward turret had been repaired and was now in condition to hurl more shells after the fleeing enemy.
It was well after noon when the Germans fled; and as the two British ships followed close on the heels of the enemy—with the main British fleet still some distance back—one of those deep impenetrable fogs that often impede progress on the North Sea suddenly descended.
It was indeed a boon to the fleeing Germans, for without its aid, there is little likelihood that they could have escaped the British fleet, which had the heels of the enemy. But the fog blotted the foe completely from the sight of the main British fleet; and even from the decks of the Queen Mary and the Indefatigable, much closer, it was impossible to make out the whereabouts of the Germans.
The British continued to fire ahead into the fog, but with what result it was impossible to tell.
The fog became more dense until it was impossible to see ten yards ahead. Even the great searchlights on the vessels failed to penetrate the gloom.
"Well, I guess that settles it," said Frank.
"Looks that way," Jack agreed. "These Germans are pretty slippery customers anyhow. It's impossible to catch them in the dark."
"This fog descended as though it were all made to order for them,"
Frank complained.
"Pretty hard to beat a fellow when the elements are fighting on his side," Jack admitted. "I imagine Captain Raleigh will give up the chase now."
But Jack was wrong, though, as it turned out, it would have been a great deal better for all concerned if the chase had been abandoned at that point.
After some conversation with Captain Reynolds of the Indefatigable by wireless, Captain Raleigh announced that the pursuit would be continued and ordered full speed ahead in the deep darkness.
As the vessel gathered momentum, Frank exclaimed:
"I don't like this. I feel as though something disastrous was about to happen."
"Another one of those things, eh?" said Jack, grinning in the darkness that enveloped them.
"What things?"
"I never can remember what you call them. Premonitions, I mean."
"You mean a hunch," said Frank, quietly. "Yes, that's just what I have —a hunch."
"Take it to Captain Raleigh. Maybe he will give you something for it," said his friend.
"This is no joking matter," declared Frank. "I'm not naturally nervous, as you know, but right now my nerves are on edge."
"Just the after effects of the battle," said Jack, quietly. "You are all unstrung."
"I'm unstrung, all right," Frank admitted, "but the battle had nothing to do with it. I tell you something is going to happen."
"Well, what?"
"I don't know."
"It's a poor hunch, unless it will tell you what is going to happen," declared Jack.
"Have it your own way," said Frank. "But wait."
"I'm waiting," said Jack, cheerfully.
The Indefatigable also, following Captain Reynold's wireless conversation with Captain Raleigh, had dashed after the retreating Germans at full speed.
Gradually, although in the darkness neither their commanders nor anyone else on board realized it, the Queen Mary and the Indefatigable, dashing ahead at full speed as they were, were drawing closer together at every turn of the screws.
Frank's forebodings were about to bear fruit.
Now, in the darkness, the vessels were running upon about even terms, but the bows were both pointed toward an angle that would drive them together in collision about a mile distant. Although none realized it, this is what would happen unless the fog lifted suddenly.
But the fog did not lift.
Frank, try as he would could not shake off his spell.
"I tell you." he said again to his chum, "something is going to happen —and it's going to happen soon."
There was so much force behind Frank's words—the lad seemed in such deadly earnest—that Jack grew alarmed. He had had some experience with these premonitions of Frank's.
"What is it?" he asked anxiously.
"I wish I knew," said Frank. "I——"
Came a sudden shout forward; a cry from the bridge. Instinctively,
Frank threw out a hand and grasped Jack by the arm.
Another series of startled cries, the tinkling of a bell in the engine room; a shock as the engines were reversed—but it was too late.
The two British warships came together with a terrible crash!
So great was the force of the shock that Frank, standing on the far side, was thrown clear over the rail. But the lad's grasp upon his chum's arm was so tight that it dragged Jack along with him; and the two boys fell into the sea together.
Aboard both British ships all was confusion now. With startled cries, men rushed on deck. Unable to see in the dense fog, they became panic stricken. While these same men would have faced death bravely in battle, they were completely bewildered at this moment.
In vain the officers aboard both vessels sought to bring some semblance of order out of the confusion. Something had gone wrong with the electric lighting apparatus on both vessels. There was no light. The fog was as thick as ever. The crews stampeded for the rails, but at the rails they hesitated, for they did not wish to throw themselves into the great unknown.
Next came the stampede for life preservers. Men fought over their possession, whereas, in cooler moments, hardly a man aboard either ship who would not willingly have given the life preservers to companions.
Had the men thrown themselves into the sea immediately, it is likely that many of them would have been saved; but their hesitation cost them dearly.
In vain did the reversed engines of both ships work. The sharp steel bow of the Indefatigable had become so firmly embedded in the side of the Queen Mary that it could not be unloosened.
And so the two battleships sank, together in their last moments as they had been when they had faced almost certain destruction under the muzzles of the great German guns such a short time before.
Now men from both ships hurled themselves into the sea in an effort to cheat the waters of their prey. Commanders and officers, however, realizing that there was no hope of life even in the sea, so swiftly were the ships sinking, stood calmly on the bridges and awaited the end. For, they realized, the suction would be so strong when the vessels took their final plunge, that all those anywhere near in the water would be drawn under.
Captain Raleigh sent a hail across the water in a loud voice.
"Are you there, Reynolds?"
"Right here, Raleigh," came back the response. "There is no hope here.
How about you?"
"No hope here either," was Captain Raleigh's answer.
"Goodbye, then," shouted Captain Reynolds.
"Goodbye, old man!"
They were the last words spoken by these two old friends, who had been boys together, schoolmates and bosom companions.
Suddenly the two ships took their final plunge. Men still on board, those of the crew who had been frightened and had not cast themselves into the sea, straightened instinctively as they felt the vessels give beneath them. In the presence of death—when they knew it had arrived— they were as brave and courageous as in the midst of battle.
So there was silence aboard the Queen Mary and aboard the Indefatigable as the waves parted for their coming. All on board, officers and members of the two crews as well, stood calmly, waiting for the dark waters to close over them.
The two ships made a last desperate effort to resist the call of the sea. They failed. A moment later they disappeared from sight. No sound came from the depths.
When Frank and Jack had felt themselves in the water, the latter, realizing immediately what would happen if the ships sank before they had put some distance in between them, struck out swiftly toward what he felt to be the south, giving Frank a hand as he did so.
The latter recovered himself a moment later, however, and gasped.
"I'm all right, Jack. Let me swim for myself."
"All right," said Jack, "but keep close beside me. We'll have to hurry or we shall be pulled under by the suction when the ships sink."
Keeping close together they swam with powerful strokes.
And so it was that they were out of harm's way when the two ships disappeared from sight with a deafening roar as the waters closed over them; they were beyond reach of the suction.
"There they go," said Frank, sadly.
"And it is only a miracle that prevented us from going with them," said
Jack.
"We might as well have gone as to be in the middle of the North Sea," said Frank.
"Nonsense. While there's life there's hope."
They swam on.
Suddenly Jack's hand came in contact with something in the darkness.
"A man!" he exclaimed.
"What did you think I was? A fish?" came the reply. "I've a right to escape as well as you."
"Who are you?" asked Frank.
At that moment, as suddenly as it had descended, the fog lifted.
Jack looked at the other man in the water and uttered an exclamation of pleasure.
"Harris!" he cried.