Yet every moment it was expected aboard the Colodia that either the wireless on the steamship would be destroyed, or she would report serious injury to her machinery. The raider would, of course, strive to place her shells where they would utterly cripple her victim—either under the stern and smash the propellers, or amidships and burst boilers or wreck engines.
The Colodia’s crew were ordered to stations, more for the sake of keeping order on deck than for aught else. Every man who could be spared from below was ranged along the decks. Gun covers were removed, breech blocks looked to, and every man was keyed to a high pitch.
“Talk about efficiency!” growled Ensign MacMasters. “We’ve got it. Just because the Germans have been abusing the word is no reason why we should not properly use it. They are often efficient to a useless end; but we’ll show that sea-raider, if we get a chance, that the old Colodia is more efficient than a German ever dared be!”
The destroyer plowed on and on, while every minute that elapsed without their hearing that the Ferret was wrecked encouraged hope. Now and again word came that the British ship, with dogged persistency, was holding out. She had been hit now several times, and the Sea Pigeon was reported as being almost on top of her. Still she was providentially saved from disaster.
Through the heat of a tropical noontide the destroyer rushed on toward the fight. The crew looked for no shelter now, they only desired to see the smoke of the guns ahead.
And before six bells of the afternoon watch they had the desire of their eyes! The lookouts began to yell the glad tidings to the bridge, and the crew took up the news with a mighty shout.
The wind was against their hearing the guns at first, but finally the thundering roll of the weapons reached the ears of the Americans. The Colodia seemed to increase her speed. The smoke rolled back from her stacks and lay flat along the sea as though painted there with one stroke of a giant brush.
Within a few minutes they could see balloons of smoke billowing up ahead, but these were from no ship afire. They were the announcement of gun discharges.
On the destroyer tore through the quiet sea. The lookouts hailed for the upperworks of the Ferret. Another message came by radio that the attacked steamship had seen and hailed with delight her rescuer.
The explosion of the guns ahead brought joy to the hearts of the Colodia’s crew. There was the prospect of a real fight! The smoke of the raider was announced. The destroyer’s course was swerved ever so slightly that she might pass the battered Ferret and draw the fire of the German from the merchant ship.