"He's going at nineteen knots, we judge," came the radio report from the "blimp."
"That won't do him any good!" was the laconic answer that Darrin returned, this time in plain English instead of code.
The lower masts, the stack and then the hull of the stranger became visible as Darrin gained on him.
Bang! A shell struck the water ahead of the stranger, the war-ship's world-wide signal to halt.
Instead, the stranger appeared to be trying to crowd on more speed.
"Give him one in the stern-post," Darrin ordered.
The shell fell just a few feet short. The third one landed on the after-part of the stranger's deck-house.
And now there went fluttering up the top of the destroyer's mast the international code signal:
"Stop or we'll sink you!"
It took another shell, this one crashing through the stern of the stranger, to convince her skipper that the destroyer was in deadly earnest.