"Steamer there!" called Dan.
"Aye, aye."
"Battleship orders you to lay back farther, and to keep off the course."
The steamer shifted its position, and Dan's boat pulled farther away, at the same time moving off a little more toward the shore. The two boats were now on opposite sides of the course that the torpedo was expected to travel, though one can never be sure just where these instruments of war are likely to go.
"Battleship under way," signaled Dan to the other small boats out on the field.
For a time he watched the warship that was heading for the other side of the bay. Finally the ship turned and started back, with a big, white "bone between her teeth," as the saying goes when a ship is plowing up the sea.
"Red flag going up," called the signal boy. "Wherry, there, ordered to lay to starboard of the target," he signaled to the little boat dancing on the waves half a mile away.
The small boat quickly took its position as ordered from the ship.
The siren blew a long blast, and with eyes turned toward the ship, all the boat crews pulled back to a safe distance.
"Torpedo on the way," signaled Sam Hickey from his position on the ship.