CHAPTER III
A FIGHT OF THE GOOD OLD KIND
Full speed ahead! Then ahead she leaped. Ere the destroyer had gained full momentum her bow struck something under the water. Men were thrown from their feet by force of the shock, and the destroyer lurched heavily.
"Hope we haven't torn our bottom out," muttered Darrin as he joined the bow lookouts.
On the water appeared a patch of oil which rapidly broadened. A wooden stool and other floating objects were visible.
"That looks like a fair score," declared the young lieutenant-commander, at which the on-looking seamen grinned broadly.
Over the spot the destroyer again steamed, but nothing passing under her keel was noticed. The sea was clear before her.
It was hours later when Darrin received, in a special code of the British Admiralty, word that the "Olga" and her convoy had reached port, and the "Olga's" officers and crew had been turned over to the Admiralty officials.
In the meantime Dan Dalzell and the "Reed," as learned by occasional wireless messages, had been separated at no time by more than two miles, though neither craft was visible from the other.