All could feel that the big ship had suddenly changed her course to a violent oblique movement to starboard. Yet, as no alarm had been sounded no officer cared to rise and hurry to deck. It might make him look timid or nervous.
"There we go again, in the opposite direction. We're zig-zagging.
What do you make of that, Captain?" Lieutenant Terry asked.
"The enemy craft must be around and sending torpedoes our way," Dick guessed, dropping a lump of sugar in his coffee and stirring it slowly.
"In a merry throng like this the suspicion that you're being dogged by a hostile submarine doesn't strike one as very terrifying, does it?" Greg inquired as he took a piece of cake from the plate held out to him.
At this moment the adjutant, Captain Craig, who had been eating with Colonel Cleaves in the latter's quarters above, entered the dining-room briskly, stepping to a nearby table and rapping for attention.
"Gentlemen," he announced, "the sea appears to be infested, at this point, with unseen enemy craft. Ours, among other transports, has narrowly dodged two torpedoes. It is quite within the limits of possibility that we may be struck at any moment. The commanding officer therefore requests me to ask that company officers, especially second lieutenants, finish their meal as quickly as possible and station themselves near their men. This is not to be done hurriedly, or with any sign of excitement, but merely in order that, if we should be struck, discipline may be preserved effectively."
There was no excitement. Second lieutenants finished the morsels on which they were engaged, some of them washing down the food with a final gulp of coffee. Then, without undue haste, they left the dining-room by twos or threes.
Adjutant Craig watched them with nods of satisfaction.
"That was the right way for them to leave," he told Dick. "We do not want to throw any extra excitement in among the enlisted men, but we want them to feel that their officers are standing by, and that, at need, there will be disciplined rescue work."
Soon after the last of the platoon leaders had vanished the captains and first lieutenants made their way to the decks above.