The others knew that he spoke the truth. A single torpedo, with its 200-pound explosive charge of the terrible gun cotton, can render helpless the greatest battleship in the world if the hole is blown in the right place below the waterline. And this indisputable fact has caused many nations, our own included, to doubt the wisdom of building so many big, heavily-armored and expensive ships. Many well-informed persons favor the development of a navy of submarines, which are becoming more and more efficient each year. They cost only a fraction as much as a battleship or cruiser, and can successfully cope with the larger craft.
“I wonder what a warship of the Uridian revolutionists is doing out here, anyhow?” went on Ned, as he and his friends watched the other craft which was endeavoring to escape.
“Probably scouting along the coast to see if it can capture anything,” suggested Frank. “The treasury of the revolutionists may be at low ebb, and they may hope to replenish it.”
“That’s what they’ve been doing, with your money and mine and Uncle Phil’s,” remarked his brother in a low voice. “I wish the Georgetown would help to get some of it back for us.”
“Maybe she will,” Frank murmured. They had followed their plan of not telling their shipmates the peculiar situation which had led them to enlist.
Everyone who could get a vantage point, and was not obliged to be at other duties, was watching the chase. The battleship was running under forced draft, and Ned and Frank were very thankful that they were not coal-passers, or firemen. For the temperature in the stokehole of a battleship, when forced draft is being used, is about the highest in the world.
Still everything possible is done to make the men comfortable, and they only work in short shifts, changing frequently, and receive the best of medical treatment and advice if they are temporarily overcome, as often happens. But word had gone into the engine room that the Georgetown was really making her first race after what might be considered a hostile craft, and the coal-passers and firemen stuck to their tasks with great grit, determined to make their craft do her best.
So through the sea plowed the great battleship, an immense wave piling up on either bow as she pushed her way along driven by the powerful engines deep in her interior.
“We don’t seem to be catching up very fast,” observed Frank.
“No, that little craft is showing a clean pair of heels,” agreed Ned. “We aren’t built for speed, anyhow.”