They pulled away just in time, and got the little engine to kicking as the wrecked auxiliary craft of the Kennebunk sank stern foremost under the sea. As she went down her bows rose out of the water and the castaways saw the great wound torn in two of her water-tight compartments by the mine.
CHAPTER XVIII
MORE TROUBLE
Philip Morgan and Al Torrance both were in the yawl, and were assigned to pull oars if the engine went dead from any cause. The two younger Seacove boys were taken by the warrant officer, Mr. Mudge, aboard the buoyant raft.
"Well, old man," muttered Torry in his mate's ear, "this is a new experience. We've never been shipwrecked before."
Ikey on the raft was bewailing the loss of some of his duffle. "Oi, oi! And a nice new black silk neckerchief, too! Oi, oi! All for the fishes yet."
Mr. MacMasters laughed, and did not order the boys to cease talking as a sterner officer might have done.
"We may as well take it cheerfully," he said. "I'm thankful there's nobody lost. And there can be no blame attached to any of us because of the loss of the boat."
"Ah, that's all right," grumbled the warrant officer on the raft. "But think of those miserable Huns, sneaking away in here and dropping a mine in a channel where nothing but small craft dare sail."