'Are you quite certain you got him?' the latter inquired anxiously.
'Absolutely certain, sir,' the lieutenant replied. 'We all saw him hit several times. He sank by the bows.'
'Have sunk hostile submarine,' was the signal made to the flagship a few minutes later. 'Request permission to send down divers to investigate.'
'Approved!' came back the answer. 'Report results.'
'Divers have been down, but report they can find no traces of the alleged submarine,' another semaphore message went across three hours afterwards.
The flagship did not deign to answer, but her signalmen tittered; the 'alleged' tickled them.
'I'm absolutely certain he was hit, sir,' the officer who had opened fire reiterated for the thousandth time. 'I'm positive I saw him sink—absolutely positive!'
'Well, where the deuce has he got to, then?' the captain wanted to know, shrugging his shoulders unbelievingly. 'The damned thing surely can't sink and not leave a trace of anything behind him!' He seemed rather irritable.
Three days later a light cruiser anchored towards the entrance of the harbour, and started talking. 'There is a large black object stranded on the beach abreast the ship,' she said by semaphore. 'Am sending boat to investigate.'
'Object previously reported is a whale,' came a supplementary message in less than half-an-hour. 'It has been dead some days, and appears to have been killed by shell-fire.'