"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."