CHAPTER XV
THE GOAL OF THE LIGHTNING CRUISE
On three different days, thereafter, there were various tests in which the submarine craft entered, each striving for points and leadership.
On one of these days the event was firing with "dummy" torpedoes. This work was carried on out in the bay. Then there were two other days of firing, with actual, loaded torpedoes, the work, one day, being with stationery naval targets. On the other day the work with loaded torpedoes was directed against moving targets—perpendicular floats towed by a tug with a very long hawser.
While some of the firing was done by the crews of the respective submarines, a good deal more was performed by members of the naval board, in order that the boats, rather than the crews, might be tested.
In each of these events the Pollard boats were the winners. At the moving targets the Day Submarine took second place away from the Rhinds boats; in the other events the Rhinds craft came in second, though rather close to the records achieved by the Pollard submarines.
Farnum was elated, of course. So were his young officers. Lieutenant Danvers, who was on board at each test, was also much pleased, though he did not express it. The cheering news was taken to David Pollard, in hospital, and greatly lightened his days of suffering and waiting.
And now, for two days, the grim-looking little submarine fleet had lain at moorings. Not one was there among their crews but wondered whether any further competitive tests were to be ordered.
There had been no more meetings, on shore, between the Rhinds party and our friends. Radwin had hoped for such a meeting, for, as Hal had predicted, the dark-faced rascal had soon reasoned out that it would be an excellent thing to stop a few blows delivered by Captain Jack Benson.
But Farnum had kept his party on the "Benson" and the "Hastings."
"Fred, I wonder whether we are going to have any more tests," demanded Mr. Rhinds, as he and his secretary lingered over their breakfast at the Somerset.
"I wish I knew," sighed Radwin.
"We've been beaten, a few points, by that Pollard crowd," muttered Rhinds, his face lowering. "But we're not altogether walloped, Fred. The government is going to buy a good many submarine boats. Now, it isn't necessary for the government to have the boats all of one type, is it?"
"Of course not," Radwin assented.
"Just so," continued the older man, "now, we've made a pretty good showing, after all. So I have already begun with some telegrams to the Senators and Congressmen of our state—Oh, you mustn't feel that you always have advance information on all I'm doing, young man," chuckled Rhinds, noting the look of surprise in his companion's face. "I've started with our state's members in Congress, and soon I shall begin to go at 'em harder. Now, despite the fact that the Pollard boats have been able to gain a few points over us, I believe I can engineer matters so that the government will order two types of submarine, instead of one. In fact, Fred, when the government gives out its big orders for submarine boats, I hope to land forty per cent., at least, of the business."
Fred Radwin glanced cautiously around him, to make sure that no waiters stood within hearing distance. Then he hissed, sharply:
"Forty per cent. of the business, you say? I still intend to land one hundred per cent. of the submarine business for our company?"
"How?" asked the older man, eagerly.
"I'll think it over a while, before I tell you my definite plans."
"Be careful, Fred," warned Rhinds, "not to make any moves that will be our undoing!"
"Have I gotten you into any trouble yet, Mr. Rhinds?"
"No," admitted the older man, though he added, half-jeeringly:
"Nor have you beaten the Pollard crowd at any point along the road, that
I can remember."
"Wait!" retorted Radwin, mysteriously.
These two villains were just sipping from their last cups of coffee when, even in the dining room, there reached their ears the muffled sound of gunfire from the bay.
"What's that?" demanded Radwin. "I want to hear the rest of that!"
He hurried through the dining room to the front of the lobby.
"There it goes," he cried, as Rhinds, puffing somewhat, joined him.
"First, the gunfire, then seven long whistles, followed by—wait!"
As the whistling ceased another gun boomed forth.
"That's the emergency signal, to call all hands back who belong on submarines," uttered Radwin, wheeling about. "We must get our hats and coats, and hustle down to the water front."
Radwin, had in truth, read the signal aright. It was the signal that the naval board had announced in case, at any time, there should be sudden, official news for the officers and crews of the rival submarines.
"What can it be, I wonder?" pondered John Rhinds, as they hurried through a street that led to the pier.
"Probably some test in which the board wants us to start without any preparation," replied Radwin.
"I wish I knew what it was," muttered Rhinds.
"That's just the way every man-jack aboard the submarine boats is feeling about it," jeered Radwin. "Jove, I hope the test, to-day, is one in which we stand a chance to beat the Pollard crowd!"
Jacob Farnum had just started from the "Hastings," in a shore boat, when the first gun boomed forth. The shipbuilder had been on his way to see his friend, at the hospital, when he heard the first gun. Stopping the rowers, he quickly comprehended when the whistle blasts started. He accordingly directed that he be put back alongside the "Hastings."
Jack, Hal and Eph had come tumbling up on deck at the first realization of the signal. Grant Andrews and his men were no longer on board, having gone, at daylight, to their boarding house on shore.
"What do you suppose is in the air, Jack?" called Mr. Farnum.
"I don't know, sir. But whatever it is, we're ready. We can start, on anything, at the drop of a handkerchief. Gasoline tanks full, compressed air by the cubic yard, storage batteries charged."
"It would be hard to catch you youngsters unprepared," laughed the shipbuilder, appreciatively.
They were still on deck, waiting and wondering, when they saw the president and secretary of the Rhinds company put off from shore in haste.
"They don't mean to be left," sneered Eph.
"They're pretty badly left already," muttered Captain Jack, bitterly.
"They haven't beaten us, so far, by a single point."
"I suppose they're hoping they will to-day, whatever the test is to be," muttered Hal Hastings.
Fifteen minutes more passed. Then a little flock of six-oared cutters left the side of the gunboat "Oakland." In the stern-sheets of each cutter sat a naval officer in uniform.
"There's Lieutenant Danvers," cried Jack, eagerly. "He brings us our instructions, whatever they are."
In a few moments more Danvers was along side, making his way up to the platform deck. In his right hand Danvers carried an official looking sealed envelope.
In his eager curiosity Jacob Farnum extended a hand to take the envelope, but Danvers drew it back.
"Pardon me," murmured the shipbuilder, confusedly. "I should have known better. The communication is, of course, for the captain."
Danvers turned the envelope over to Captain Jack Benson, who broke the seal, drawing out the paper enclosed. This is a part of what the submarine boy read aloud:
"'The Navy Department has just reported, by wireless, that a semi-submerged derelict, evidently that of a three-master schooner, is drifting in the paths of navigation at a point 385 miles southwest by south of this present station. The Department suggests that it would afford an example of practical use for submarines, if those now on this station would accompany a gunboat, at full speed for cruising, and attempt to discover and blow up this derelict.'"
"Great!" glowed Eph. "I vote for it."
"So do those on the other boats, if the observable excitement is to be taken as an indication," laughed Mr. Farnum.
"This letter goes on to request," announced Benson, "that the commander of each submarine willing to enter this affair signal to the 'Oakland' by hoisting the signal 'Ready.' Do you hear that, Eph?"
Somers made a dash for the signal chest. In another moment the appropriate bit of bunting was fluttering on the halliard at the top of the signal mast.
"We are directed," Jack read on, "to be ready within thirty minutes. We must follow the 'Oakland' down the bay at a cruising speed of sixteen miles an hour. Once out of the bay, the 'Oakland' will signal our formation to us."
"Do you see the boat the Rhinds signal is going up on?" laughed Hal Hastings. "It is going up on the submarine 'Thor.' According to the old Norsemen tales Thor was The Thunderer—also the fellow who struck with the big hammer. It looks like a Rhinds boast that they are to do big things on this lightning cruise."
"Yes; Thor was an old Norse god," muttered Captain Jack. "And the early Norsemen were very largely pirates. Perhaps we are to take the signal on the 'Thor' as an intimation that Rhinds is out to play pirate in earnest on this cruise."
As Benson uttered these words he felt an odd little shiver run over him. Yet he gave it no more thought. Little idea had he, at that moment, how prophetic his words were likely to be!
In half an hour, as planned, the "Oakland," after firing a warning gun, steamed away from her moorings. Gradually the gunboat's speed increased, until the full sixteen miles were being made—miles, instead of knots, since gasoline boats, like these submarines, are usually rated by miles instead of by the longer "knot."
It was a rattling rate of speed to exact from these little craft, when it was considered that the gait would have to be continued, without break, for at least twenty-four hours.
Eph was at the wheel, at the start, and Jack standing back by the conning tower. Mr. Farnum had gone below, for a nap, as he intended to relieve Hal in the engine room after a few hours.
"Benson," remarked Danvers, approaching the submarine boy, "I guess your remark of a few minutes ago exactly defines this trip."
"What remark?" asked Jack.
"You spoke of it as a lightning cruise. It is going to be one, indeed, for these little submarine craft."
"Our boat can stand it, I think," smiled the submarine skipper.
"And so can the Rhinds boat, probably. But some of the others will find themselves sorely put to to keep up the speed for twenty-four hours."
"And, if they don't?" queried Jack.
Danvers shrugged his shoulders.
"Then I guess they'll have to be satisfied with being left far behind, unless they signal that they're in actual distress."
"This speed," mused Captain Jack, "must be part of the government's plans for another test. The Navy Department must have planned to see whether any of these boats could stand such a gait for twenty-four long hours."
"I couldn't tell you if I knew," remarked Lieutenant Danvers, with a quizzical look, then turned and strolled away.
"And I guess," muttered the submarine boy to himself, "that that's about as near as a fellow can go to giving a tip, once he has had the Navy muzzle padlocked to his jaws."
Some of the submarines in this long race—for such it was—were better equipped as to the number of the crew. The Rhinds had this advantage, carrying a captain and four men, in addition to Rhinds himself and his secretary. Yet Jack and Eph relieved each other regularly at the wheel, catching long naps between. Hal and Mr. Farnum did the same thing with the engine room, and the "Hastings" kept well in the van through the day, and also through the long night that followed.
Two hours after daylight the "Oakland" signaled to the submarines to run up close to this "parent vessel," the gunboat.
"Further orders, of course," muttered Jack, who was at the wheel at the time. "Well, we're not such a very long run, now, from the reported location of that derelict."
The fleet was wholly out of sight of land. The wind was fresh and the sea lively with short, choppy waves, crested by white-caps. Yet, for boats as staunch as these submarines, sea was not a difficult one for boat handling.
One after another, while still going at full speed, the submarines drew close to the "Oakland." One after another, as signaled, the boats put in within easy hailing distance of the gunboat.
"The 'Hastings' will keep to the same South West, by South course, but at a distance of two miles off this vessel's port bow," came the order. "The 'Thor' will take up similar position, two miles off the port side of the 'Hastings.'"
The three remaining torpedo boats were assigned to positions corresponding on the starboard side of the "Oakland."
In this order the boats went ahead at a speed reduced to fourteen miles. The front of the line extended over some ten miles; in reality the line of vision extended much further than that. Unless the semi-submerged derelict had moved much faster than such derelicts usually do, it was difficult to see how the wreck could get through this line of exploration.
Jack Benson pressed a signal that brought Hal Hastings up on deck.
"Rouse Eph and Mr. Farnum," ordered the young skipper. "We've got to have all hands on, now. And call Lieutenant Danvers, also. He's not allowed to help us, but he'll be anxious to see what is going on."
As soon as Eph Somers reached deck Jack Benson turned the wheel over to him. Then the young captain got his marine glasses, stationing himself, most of the time, beside the deck wheel.
"If it's in any way possible," muttered Jack, "I want to be the first to sight that derelict. I want the honor of sinking her to come to us. It will all be points in the game we are fighting for."
As Benson spoke he swung his glass around to cover the deck of the
"Thor," that craft being, now, her full two miles away off the port beam.
"Rhinds has his whole crowd on deck, too," growled young Benson, using his powerful marine glass with interest. "Yes; everyone on deck, except two men for the engine room."
At this moment Lieutenant Danvers stepped on deck, looking as though he had slept well. The naval officer carried a glass very much like the submarine skipper's.
"It's almost mean of me to bring a glass on deck with me," laughed
Danvers. "Under the rules I'm forbidden to give you any information
I may find for myself."
Jack nodded pleasantly, then turned to sweep the sea ahead. At a distance of a few miles it would be easy enough to miss the half-submerged derelict.
For some three hours the flotilla swept on, with active officers on every deck. The naval board had ordered this new formation ere reaching the probable location of the derelict.
"We haven't passed the thing, anyway," Jack muttered to Eph. "The sea isn't rough enough for that to be possible."
Part of the time young Benson had surrendered his glass to his first officer, while the captain himself stood by the wheel.
But now, Jack was again pacing the deck, while Eph, his eyes mostly on the compass, steered steadily by course.
Suddenly, Jack Benson started. Quickly he wiped the outer lenses of his glass, then looked again.
"See anything?" demanded Eph.
"Yes, sirree! And the 'Thor' is almost a mile nearer than we are! It's the derelict—not a doubt of it!"
Like a flash Jack sprang to the wheel, ringing the bell for full speed.
"Eph, hustle below! Tell Hal we've sighted the derelict. Tell him to hump the engines. Tell him I don't care how much we overheat the machinery so that we don't blow the craft up. Jump!"
Eph collided with Jacob Farnum, who had started up from below, but he brushed the shipbuilder aside, rushing below as though death pursued him.