"What is it, then?" was his chum's worried demand.
"Oh, bother! Don't care what it is," returned Frenchy. "Give us a hand here, Ike. Want me to do all the work alone, do you?"
Frenchy was really getting cross. There are plenty of noises of one kind or another about a ship. One more noise he did not think mattered.
But Ikey continued to raise his head now and then to listen to the "tick-tock" sound. It puzzled him, and he determined to tell Whistler about it.
Their work was completed at length, and Frenchy crept out into the passage to look about. There was nobody in this part of the ship save themselves.
The two mischievous youths tugged the result of their labor out to the ash-chute. The time was propitious. The battleship and the auxiliary were approaching each other and signals were being exchanged. Captain Trevor was on the quarterdeck and word was passed that target practice would immediately begin. In a moment Frenchy and Ikey darted out on deck and joined their mates without being observed by the master-at-arms. Whistler and Al Torrance were already hovering about their stations. If the guns of Number Two turret got a chance, they hoped to have a hand in the manipulation of them.
Suddenly there came a hail from the masthead:
"Q'deck-ahoy-sir!"
The boy up there ran his cry altogether in his excitement. The navigating officer replied.
"Submarine astern, sir! Can see the periscope bobbing, sir!" was the statement that changed the entire atmosphere of the battleship from that of mere curiosity and interest to the wildest excitement.