"Why, sir," replied the executive officer, "I've about concluded that the enemy mine-laying submarines do not go back to base port for more mines. They have some method for delivering them near here, and thus the mine-layers are able to keep more steadily at work."
"That fits in excellently with my idea," Darrin nodded.
"And that would account for the great numbers of mines that the enemy is able to lay hereabouts, and yet not have many of the craft caught by us," Lieutenant Fernald continued.
"Exactly," Dave agreed. "Moreover, the mine-layers take on their new supplies at night, and do their resting here at night, and get away from these shoals just before daylight."
"Of course," Fernald agreed. "If they rested here much in the daytime the aircraft would discover and destroy them."
"We'll both keep at work on our ideas, Fernald," Dave proposed. "Besides, we can take time to find facts to support our theories. Then we can get together and start in the biggest smashing of mine-laying craft on record."
Both paused in their talk to listen to the sudden boom of guns. Judged by the sound and the wind, the firing was some six miles away.
"Lookout there!" Darrin sang out. "Do you see anything?"
"Yes, sir," came the reply from aloft. "It must be the 'Reed,' sir. She must have gotten into something stiff, for she's moving shoreward at slow speed and firing as fast as she can serve her guns. She's firing in shoreward, sir."
