WITH THE MOTORBOAT FLEET.
Frank and Lord Hastings also came quickly forward and peered over the edge of the roof.
Jack wiped beads of perspiration from his face; then turned and lifted his hat.
"That," he said quietly, "took nerve; for he must have known he would be killed."
"But he preferred it to falling into the hands of an enemy," said Frank. "He was a brave man."
"Come," said Lord Hastings; "we shall go down and carry him into the house. Then we shall notify the civil authorities and they can take charge of his body."
They made their way down stairs and tenderly carried the body of the Baron into the house, where they stretched out his mangled form as well as possible and covered it with a sheet. Lord Hastings went to the telephone in the hall and notified the authorities.
"Well," he said, "we may as well go now."
"How about your wound, sir?" asked Jack. "I saw blood on your coat a moment ago."
"True; I had forgotten," replied Lord Hastings.
He stripped off his coat and Jack examined the wound.
"Just a scratch," he said cheerfully. "I'll fix it up in a jiffy, sir."
He did a neat job and Lord Hastings again donned his coat and turned to go.
"Wait a minute, sir; you are forgetting something," exclaimed Frank.
"What's that?" asked Lord Hastings in surprise.
"Davis, sir."
"By Jove! I had forgotten all about that scoundrel," said Lord Hastings.
He led the way to the room where he had so recently placed Davis hors de combat, but there was no Davis there.
Lord Hastings was greatly crestfallen.
"I should not have forgotten him," he said. "He may work more mischief around here."
"The chances are, knowing he has been discovered, he'll make himself extremely scarce," suggested Frank. "He'll probably figure that his usefulness here is at an end."
"Well, that's probably true," admitted Lord Hastings.
"We'll come across him again some place," said Jack. "I wonder if he recognized us as the ones from whom be obtained his information?"
"I wonder, too," said Frank with a laugh. "If not, he probably believes we are in trouble. Guess he will imagine we have been executed as spies by this time."
"To tell the truth, I don't believe he recognized us," said Jack. "We were too far away for that."
"Except for the time he laid me out down the street there," said Frank ruefully. "Then the chances are he didn't take time to look at me. And he was unconscious when we came upstairs here. No, I don't believe he recognized us."
"Well, I hope we shall have the pleasure of introducing ourselves to him more fully at some future date," said Jack.
"And I have a hunch that we shall," declared Frank.
"There is nothing more to be done here," said Lord Hastings at this juncture. "We'll get back to our boat."
Accordingly they took their leave of the house, and half an hour later were again moving down the waters of the Thames.
"Where to now, sir?" asked Frank.
Lord Hastings smiled slightly.
"Can't wait until you find out, eh?" he replied. "Well, I'll tell you. We are about to do a little submarine chasing."
"Submarine chasing?" exclaimed both lads.
"Exactly."
"Good!" ejaculated Frank. "And where is our vessel, sir?"
"If you will look about a little you will see it," replied Lord Hastings.
Frank and Jack let their eyes roam over the broad expanse of the Thames, but they could see nothing but a few small boats of various sorts—nothing bearing the slightest resemblance to a ship of war.
"I don't see anything that looks like it, sir," declared the boy.
"That," said Lord Hastings, "is because you insist on looking too far away. You don't see it for the reason that you are sitting in it right now."
"What, sir?" exclaimed Frank. "Sitting in it now? You mean we are going submarine chasing in this motorboat?"
"Exactly," replied Lord Hastings.
"But, sir——" began Jack.
"You'll find," interrupted Lord Hastings, "that for submarine warfare there is nothing to equal the motorboat—particularly a swift motorboat such as this; and we are now on our way to join the fleet."
"Fleet? Fleet of what?" asked Jack, with some sarcasm. "Fleet of motorboats, perhaps?"
"Precisely," said Lord Hastings with a smile, and added: "You don't seem to think much of the idea."
"No, I don't, sir," was the reply. "I was in hopes that we were to feel a real vessel beneath our feet once more. What good is a motorboat against a submarine, anyway?"
"That's what I would like to know," agreed Frank.
"I'll tell you," replied Lord Hastings. "But first let me ask you something. Do you remember, the other day, of asking me to explain the mystery of the vanishing submarines?"
"Yes, sir," replied both lads.
"Very well. The solution of this mystery is, primarily, motorboats."
"What do you mean, sir?" exclaimed Jack.
"Just what I say. In the main, the possible hundred German submarines that have disappeared recently have been accounted for by high-speed, powerfully armed motorboats. The government has discovered, after much experimenting, that the one craft with an advantage over a submarine is a powerful motorboat; and England now has a fleet of several hundred scouring the seas in the proximity of the British Isles."
"But I can't see where they would do any good," said Jack.
"In the first place," said Lord Hastings, "they are so small that they escape the notice of a submarine until the motorboat is almost upon them; and then it is too late for them to act. Also, the motorboat, being small, is a much more difficult object to hit with a torpedo—it is, in fact, a very poor target. Then again, a motorboat is so much swifter than a submarine that the advantage is all with the motorboat."
"By Jove, sir! the way you explain it I can see the advantages," said Jack eagerly.
"And so can I," agreed Frank.
Lord Hastings smiled.
"You are easily convinced," he replied. "Had some of the admiralty officials been convinced half so easily, this submarine menace might have been effectually stopped long before this."
As the motorboat continued down the Thames, each occupant remained busy with his thoughts. It was Frank who broke the silence.
"What has happened to the torpedoboat destroyers, sir?" he asked. "I understood they were the real submarine foe, with their heavy nets."
"They are still in use," replied Lord Hastings. "You know how they work their nets, I suppose?"
"Why, I think so, sir. The net is carried by two ships, and when a submarine crashes into the net she either tangles her nose or her stern in the net and can be disposed of with ease."
"Yes, but what I want to know," said Jack, "is why she doesn't fire a torpedo through the net and sink the torpedoboat?"
"Because," said Lord Hastings, with a smile, "being beneath the water, she is blind. She doesn't know in which direction to fire it. You forget that the German submarines are not equipped as was the D-16."
"The good old D-16," said Jack. "How I wish we had her again, sir."
"And I," agreed Lord Hastings. "And yet she came near being the death of all of us."
"So she did," said Frank, "but at the same time I wouldn't mind being aboard another such craft."
"Well, just between the three of us," said Lord Hastings, "I may tell you that another such craft now is nearing completion and probably will be at our disposal within a month."
"You don't mean it, sir!" exclaimed Frank happily.
"If he didn't mean it he wouldn't say so," Jack reproved his chum.
"Oh, I know that," replied Frank. "But it seems too good to be true."
"But just where are we bound now, sir?" asked Jack.
"Well," said Lord Hastings, "at first we shall do a little cruising off the Irish coast. In fact, most of the motorboat fleet is in Irish waters. Since the sinking of the Lusitania, most of the work has been done there; and apparently the German government
is still bent upon the destruction of big
passenger ships, neutral or not."
"Well, the sooner we can get busy the better it will suit me," declared Frank.
"I agree with you there," said Jack.
It was a long voyage for the little motorboat, and though Lord Hastings wished to join the others of the fleet at the earliest possible moment, he did not push the little craft, which bore the name of The Hawk.
Therefore, it was late the next day when they came to where the motorboat fleet had its base—Bantry Bay, on the extreme southern coast of Ireland.
As the little motorboat nosed its way into the harbor, several others dashed forward, with guns bared and alert figures standing ready for action. It was not until Lord Hastings had been satisfactorily identified that the warlike atmosphere disappeared.
The two lads looked about curiously. The bay was black with the little craft.
"Great Scott! There are more than two hundred here, if you ask me," declared Frank.
"Looks that way to me, too," agreed Jack.
They mentioned the matter to Lord Hastings.
"Captain Smithers just told me," replied Lord Hastings, "that at this moment there are in the neighborhood of a thousand of these little craft here. However, the bulk of them probably will be sent to other stations before long."
"You mean distributed up and down the coast?" asked Frank.
"Exactly."
"And when are we going to get busy, sir?" asked Jack.
Again Lord Hastings smiled.
"To-night," he said, after a moment's hesitation, "I think I can promise you a little excitement to-night. Captain Smithers has a tip that he intends to follow, and we have been selected for the job."