Hartley quickly gave the order to put about.
"Another try for that slippery customer, eh?" queried Ormsby.
"I'd feel like a murderer, if I knowingly left that thing in the sea, to destroy some fine craft," declared Mr. Hartley, gravely. "Once we've located a mine we never leave it. We'll make the 'catch' again, but we'll inspect our tackle before we try to take it aboard. I think you gentlemen had better step back well out of the way."
"Of course we will, sir, if we are really in the way," Darrin smiled.
"You're not in our way," Hartley promptly denied. "But you will hardly care, should the tackle still be defective, to be loitering at the point of danger."
"I want to see you repair the tackle," Dave replied. "Then I want to see you make the grapple again and bring the mine safely on board."
"All right, gentlemen, if you love danger well enough to take the risk twice when you're only spectators," Hartley answered, with a shrug of his shoulders.
Again the mine was caught, grappled, and this time successfully hoisted on board.
All of this Darrin and his junior officer noted carefully, even giving a hand at the work.
Through the day at least one of the mine-sweepers continued over this line of shoal, trying constantly with the sweeps. Farther out to sea Dalzell and the "Reed" accompanied others of the craft. By nightfall it was reported that more than sixty mines had been picked up.