"I see why," Whistler said. "If the U-boat goes down the destroyer will dart in and drag depth bombs. Then—good-night!"
"Wow, wow!" cried Frenchy. "She's so fast she can cut circles around the U-boat, eh?"
"Sure as you live!" said Torry. "My! that's a pretty fight. If that destroyer was the old Colodia, and we were only aboard of her! What fun!"
The destroyer was narrowing her circles; the U-boat was in a pocket, and unless the Hun put a lucky shell into the destroyer's engines, she seemed doomed to capture or destruction.
The cutter raced nearer. Her course would take her directly into the circle of battle unless her helm was changed.
CHAPTER XXIII
UNDER SPECIAL ORDERS
It was like bombarding a whale with bomb lances. One after another the shells from the destroyer's guns shrieked over the sea to fall around the more sluggishly manoeuvring U-boat.
The captain of the submarine handled his craft with skill; but his gunners were poor marksmen. They kept both the U-boat's deckguns smoking; but the shots went wild.