“We are not in danger of sinking?”
“Doesn’t look like it to me, sir,” Dan replied, “and the chief engineer is of the same opinion.”
“Take the bridge with Mr. Curtin.”
Not more than two minutes was Dave below decks, half of that time with the chief engineer. Then he hurried back, disappearing into the radio room. In a code message he notified destroyer headquarters of the encounter, its result, and the nature of the damage to the “Logan.”
Within five minutes the answer came back through the air:
“Return to repair. Keep alert for enemy craft understood to be more numerous in your waters than usual.”
The order bore the signature of Admiral Speare’s flag-lieutenant.
“Home, James,” smiled Darrin, after reading the order.
So the “Logan” was put about. Dave did not steam fast, for it had been found impossible wholly to stop the hole below water line. Water still came in, though in diminished quantity. Fast speed would be likely to spring the damaged plates.
It was near dawn when land was sighted, and the sun was well up when the “Logan” steamed limpingly into port. Half an hour later American dock authorities had taken charge of the destroyer. Dave waited until he saw his beloved craft in dry dock and the water receding from under her as it was pumped out of the basin in which the “Logan” now lay.