“Back with the ports! Let him have it, starboard battery!” Dan called to the waiting naval gunners.
Their officer had the range and all was ready. Two shells splashed in the sea just short of the submersible, the third just beyond it.
“Second round!” Dan bellowed from the bridge.
Profiting by their margins of error the gunners this time fired so true that one shell landed on the gray back forward, the other aft. The hits were glancing, so the enemy was not put out of business.
The next instant a puff of smoke left the enemy’s forward gun. No bad shooting, that, for the forward gun of the “Prince’s” starboard battery was promptly knocked from its mounting. Four men went down as the shell exploded.
“Two killed, sir!” came the swift report from the deck. The others, wounded, were assisted below. The shell had done further damage, for a big fragment had knocked to bits one of the sliding port doors.
Dan signalled for speed ahead, swung around, and at the same time ordered raised for instant work a machine gun that nestled in the bow of the “Prince.”
“Let the enemy have it!” called Dalzell.
Straight at the submarine Dan dashed, throwing the spray high around the bows. The machine gunners, quickly getting sight, kept a steady stream of bullets striking against the enemy’s hull, despite the fact that the range was constantly shifting. This keeping of the range was not difficult when shots were fired continuously, for the enemy was near enough for the officer in charge of the piece to tell by splashes of water when any of the bullets went wild.
“He won’t dive now, but if he does, it will suit me just as well,” Dan chuckled. “That old hull must be a sieve now.”