HARD AND FAST AGROUND
"Wow!"
Sam, who had climbed to the top of the signal box for a better view of sea, was so startled that he lost his footing in leaping to one side.
"Look out below!" he howled. "I'm coming!"
"Gangway!" cried half a dozen sailors at once, as, with quick intuition, they discovered what was occurring.
Hickey, in attempting to right himself, had plunged head foremost from the signal box. In his descent he caught a signal halyard. He bounded up into the air like a tight-rope walker. The next instant he struck a chain that had been rigged as a railing on the companionway to the lower bridge.
"Look out below!" bellowed a voice. "Torpedo coming your way."
Sam balanced, for one awful second, on the companionway chain, then pitched downward through the open hatchway. He disappeared in the direction of the gun deck. From the commotion below it was evident to those on the lower bridge that he had reached his destination.
"What's all that racket?" demanded the captain, looking aft from the navigator's bridge.
"Signalman fell off, sir."