“Oh, moving around here and there. I ran into a bunch of the old gang that helped clean up that machine-gun nest—you know, Jerry—the place where you got whiffed.”
“Oh, I remember that all right. And so some of those fellows are on board? Lead me to ’em!”
The rest of the day was most pleasantly spent—that is, as pleasantly as possible under the circumstances—and Ned, Bob, and Jerry were glad that they had found old friends whose presence would help while away what might, otherwise, be a tedious voyage.
It was in the middle of the night that Jerry was awakened by a dull explosion and a concussion that sent a tremor through the whole ship. Dim lights that were burning near the sleeping quarters went out suddenly, and Jerry, straining his eyes to pierce the darkness and at the same time sitting up and feeling about him, heard the voice of Ned crying:
“What is it? What’s the matter?”
At the same moment Bob broke in with:
“We hit something sure, that time, or something hit us! If the whole bottom isn’t blown out of the ship we’re lucky!”
And then followed a scene of confusion and almost panic.