Like many others of the passengers, they amused themselves at odd times in playing deck quoits and shuffleboard. There was enough of interest in both games to engage their attention, though Jack declared them “effeminate,” having been immersed in the national game of baseball, and even a promising player on the high-school football squad at the time he graduated.
Still, some such employment helped to pass the dull hours away. It also took the minds of the travelers away from the terrible perils to which each hour carried them nearer. And how many times, even while thus engaged, and in an apparently boisterous humor, those aboard would look anxiously toward the beckoning east.
Somewhere in that region, as they well knew, lurked those terrible undersea boats manned by German crews on the constant watch to sink any laden steamer that crossed their path. And this knowledge never left them, night or day. While awake it haunted their minds and took up much of their conversation; when asleep there came dreams that caused them to open their eyes in sudden fear, and then be very thankful that it was not yet a reality.
Jack had easily succeeded in making the acquaintance of the young girl who had attracted his attention at the time of the embarkation. In fact, he found her not in the least averse to talking to him when the first opportunity arose. Jack plumed himself on this circumstance at the time, and fancied that it was because he had an attractive air about him. Later on these aircastles crumbled into ruins and dreadful suspicions arose.
He often played deck quoits with Bessie Gleason, as Jack learned her name was. She was mature in her ways, and yet full of fun. Jack liked her more as he came to know her; and yet in spite of this he admitted to Tom that there was something a bit queer about the girl which he could not quite fathom.
He was talking of her that afternoon when, with his chum, he sat in an exposed part of the promenade deck taking a sun-bath. The day was pleasant, and there was just enough warmth in the sun’s rays to make it delightful to loll there.
The sea was fairly rough, and the billows had their foamy crests whipped off as with a knife when breaking in the wind, to be carried away in the shape of spume or spray. The favorite occupation of most of the travelers just then was to sit and look across the heaving waters, their anxious eyes searching for any object that by a stretch of the imagination could be transformed into the periscope of a submersible waiting to shoot a torpedo at the unprotected side of the steamer.
“I never had any girl puzzle me as much as Bessie Gleason does, and that’s a fact, Tom,” Jack remarked thoughtfully.
“What do you mean by that remark?” demanded the other, looking at him with sudden interest.
“Why, she changes all of a sudden from a fit of merriment, and becomes as sober as an old maid,” explained Jack, as though he had been meditating over the matter for some time and could not reach any satisfactory explanation.