I paid out the line to him. In a moment more he had made it fast to the bow of the Boche sub, and was coming rapidly up the line hand over hand, like an orang-outang.
CHAPTER XXVI
All that night the pumps driven by the engines of the Anti-Kaiser worked with unerring certainty, and appeared to feel the important work; every exhaust, powerful and distinct, pronouncing a new life, a new ambition, a wonderful achievement for Fighting Howard Byng.
After daylight we could visualize results. Below we could easily distinguish what seemed a rather nebulous, long, dark shadow in the sea. Howard went down and found that the U-boat was raising at the rate of a foot per hour, and a total of sixty hours would be required before it would reach the surface.
Now new troubles threatened. The weather that had so graciously favored us for almost a week looked ominous. Howard, who knew all about Gulf weather, scanned the sky and shook his head.
"I believe we are in for it. But the way we're anchored now our bow is all right. It's going to come from out there," he said, pointing toward the northwest.
Another anchor was carried out and every precaution taken while the pumps still chugged with perfect rhythm, and gloriously labored toward the goal for which we prayed. The U-boat now hung in suspension in the clear Gulf water, and was slowly but surely raising to our will, but should the hose connection break, having no check valve, it would immediately fill and sink. Everyone was alert and strained for the emergency. Additional hawsers lashed it fore and aft to the Anti-Kaiser to guard against being shifted by submarine currents that mysteriously form during storms.