“You’re right there,” echoed Barton warmly. “‘Spurlos versenkt,’ no matter what the cost.”
“How many do you expect there are, sir?” asked the skipper of the destroyer, addressing Captain Fraser.
“According to Commander Barton’s friend, seven started out together from Gibraltar. They have probably stayed together,” answered Fraser. Then, seeing Barton look uneasily at the quartermasters on duty on the bridge to see if any had been within hearing, Fraser added, “Keep that about Barton’s friend under your hat.”
“What assurance have you that they are all inside the net, sir?” asked the skipper.
“We had a series of clear fixes from four of the chasers,” answered Fraser. “At the last fix their motors were heard to slow down. That was—how long, Evans, before we started laying the net?”
“Twenty minutes,” answered Evans.
“Twenty minutes,” resumed Fraser, “and in another twenty-five the nets were laid. The last fix was at the center of this circle; their speed from that point could not have averaged more than three and a half knots without their being heard, in spite of the noise of our engines. That gives them two and a half miles; the nets are three and a half miles from the fix. That’s a margin of a mile; pretty safe, I think, considering the accuracy of the fix.”
All eyes were on the chasers. Ten minutes passed; it seemed an age. Then at last a small fountain of water rose in the wake of one of them. A paravane had struck something under water, and its bomb had detonated. Instantly from the second line of chasers the three most nearly behind the explosion converged upon the spot and smothered the vicinity with a concentrated barrage of depth charges. Mid the jar and din and the monstrous fountains of white and black froth there rose bits of wreckage, clearly visible to the watching eyes on the destroyer. The chaser whose paravane had given the signal kept her place in the line; another paravane was thrown out astern to replace the first which had done its duty and gone; and the sweep went on.
Fifteen minutes elapsed. Then two miles away another small fountain rose into the air, this time from the encircling net. The two nearest destroyers raced to the spot and laid down a pattern of depth charges which ripped to bits a hundred yards of the net, and brought up other wreckage which told of another kill. The drifting chasers on that side of the net, hastened to the spot, and with grappling irons caught the broken ends of the net and drew them together, securing them with a short overlap. Meanwhile a maneuver had been commenced by the net-laying ships and chasers together, whereby the ends of the net were slowly drawn in toward the center of the circle, in order to reduce the area to be swept.
More telltale bombs behind the chasers sent up their signal fountains, and two more barrages brought up their gruesome wreckage. The ocean shook and seethed with the tumult.