“And so,” the boy concluded, “we were just hoping that the real ‘U-13’ wouldn’t show up and claim the package that we haven’t got!”
“No danger!” reassured von Kluck. “Dis vindt keeps dose fellers under vasser deep! Dey like rough vedder not at all!”
“Hurrah!” joyfully cried Jimmie. “Blow, winds; blow hard!” the lad continued, stretching his hands to windward in an appealing attitude. “Blow hard enough to keep the submarines submarooned!”
A laugh went round as the boys listened to Jimmie’s coined word. They were all heartily in sympathy with the expressed wish that the wind would blow hard enough to keep the submarines from the surface.
“But, den,” continued von Kluck, with a frown that wrinkled his heavy brows, “dot’s not all. Dere’s mines floatin’ round der Nord Sea dot dem verdom Deutsches blanted. Maybe vhe hit one of dem und if vhe do—”
Here the captain shrugged his shoulders, spreading his hands palm upward and extending them with a final toss aloft to indicate the hopelessness of a situation such as he intimated might befall them.
“Can’t we dodge a mine?” queried Jimmie.
“Sure, if vhe can see id!” declared von Kluck.
“That’s the trouble,” explained Ned. “These mines float deep and before a ship can know of its danger—Bang!”
“Well, Ned,” announced Jimmie with a grin, as he wrinkled his freckled nose, “I’ll tell you what I’ll do. I’ll bet you my old hat that if we do hit a mine and get blown up I go higher than you do!”