“I should say so,” agreed Jack. “Now——”
He broke off suddenly, for at that moment, chancing to glance back, he saw the D-16, half a mile to stern, disappear from sight.
“The fight won’t last long now,” he said to his commander.
“Why?” demanded the latter.
“Because the D-16 is going into action.”
“By Jove!” exclaimed Lord Hastings. “If Frank just acts quickly enough.”
“He will, never fear,” said Jack quietly.
Still the battle raged. Shells fell aboard the Russian cruiser with great regularity now. Men lay wounded and bleeding upon the deck, in the turrets, and in the engine room, where one German shell had penetrated.
But the Germans had not escaped. The Russians, once they had found the range, poured a veritable hail of shells aboard the enemy. The forward turret guns of the German were silenced by a shell that struck the revolving structure squarely and destroyed it.
For half an hour the battle raged, and then, suddenly, there came terrible cries from aboard the German, carrying plainly over the water to the ears of the Russians.