If anything was needed to decide the matter, this last offering seemed to serve the purpose. All three lads hastened down the ladder without further parley. Ned lingered a moment to close the hatch.
“Hang onto your hats!” cried Jimmie the next instant.
“Let’s get down quick!” urged Jack. “Those fellows up there seem to mean business. My stars!” he added breathlessly, “that last one was certainly a beauty! They are getting the range, too!”
Already Harry had started the pumps, filling the ballast tanks with water to assist the “U-13” in the evolution of the dive. The rudders were deflected to their extreme range. With decks inclined to an alarming angle, the submarine fled toward the bottom like a hunted creature. Until the gauges showed a depth of twelve fathoms, Jimmie held the levers in position. Then he brought the craft to an even keel.
“It’s plain to be seen that we’ll not get much help from any ship on the North Sea!” declared Jack at length, as the ballast tanks were found to trim the vessel. “They’re scared of us, I believe!”
“They haven’t any reason to be scared of us!” stoutly protested Jimmie. “We have never done a thing to them. We’re absolutely neutral!”
“It seems to be one thing to be neutral,” laughed Ned, “and quite another thing to convince other folks of the fact!”
“They might at least have given us a chance to explain!” grumbled Jimmie. “We had a white flag flying for them to see!”
“Yes,” argued Ned, “but did you stop to think that we were showing ourselves in a bad light? Remember the newspaper accounts of all the damage done by a submarine? I’m not surprised they ran away.”
“And then we come along in a submarine! Of course, we couldn’t expect them to wait for a German undersea craft to come popping out of the ocean and waltz up alongside so they could say: ‘Good morning, Mr. Dutchman! Won’t you please accept this fine ship?’” added Jack.