“A sub! She’s got a sub under her guns!” was the yell that rose all over the Colodia.
Swift orders from the bridge and instantly the destroyer shot ahead like a mettlesome horse under spur and whip.
CHAPTER XI—ACTION
If action was what George Belding craved, he was getting it. Everybody aboard the United States destroyer Colodia was on the alert as the craft leaped ahead to full speed for the spot where the rusty-sided tramp steamship was popping away with her deck guns at some object as yet not in view from the destroyer.
The merchant ship was being conned on a zig-zag course, evidently in an attempt to dodge an expected torpedo. Her hull hid whatever she was shooting at from the crew of the Colodia; but the latter did not doubt the nature of the big ship’s erratic course.
At top speed the Colodia rushed to the fray, and on suddenly rounding the stern of the tramp, a great shout rose from the boys ranged along the destroyer’s rail:
“There she is!”
The cry was drowned by the salvo of guns discharged at the conning tower of the German submersible not more than a thousand yards from the tramp ship. The position of the German craft had been excellent at first for a shot at the merchant vessel; but her first torpedo had evidently missed its objective. Now with the destroyer in view, the Hun let drive a second missile and then began to submerge.
The torpedo’s wake could be seen by the lookouts on the Colodia the instant it left its tube. The tramp vessel evaded the explosive; but the destroyer was directly in the torpedo’s path.
There was real danger at this moment. Quickly swerved as she might be, it was not at all sure that the Colodia could escape the torpedo. Every man and boy aboard was at his station; among them Al Torrance was placed at the starboard rail. He was armed, like many of his mates, with a rifle.