“Oi, oi! That just goes to show the curiosity of you,” declared Ikey Rosenmeyer, with serious air. “It is a trait of your character that should be suppressed, Torry.”
CHAPTER XIII—THE SUPER-SUBMERSIBLE
The boys from Seacove and George Belding—but especially the last and Phil Morgan—had a second topic of daily conversation quite as interesting, if not as exciting, as that of the German raider, in chase of which the Colodia was now driving at top-speed into the southwest.
This topic was the fruitful one of the Redbird and her cruise to Bahia. If the big sailing ship had left New York on the date promised, then the Belding family and Phil’s sisters would now be off Hatteras—perhaps even farther south.
“For you can believe me, Belding,” Al Torrance declared earnestly, and speaking with all the sea-wisdom acquired during his naval experience, “that Captain Lawdor would not sail right out across the Gulf Stream and make the Azores or the Canaries a landfall, as he might have done before Hun submarines got to littering up the Atlantic as they do now.”
“We cannot be altogether sure of his course,” murmured George Belding.
“Sailing vessels hate to head into the current of the Gulf Stream,” added Whistler, likewise in doubt.
“You chaps are determined to expect the very worst that can happen, aren’t you? Like a fellow going to have a tooth extracted,” said Al, with disgust. “Now, listen here! It stands to reason that news of this new raider, the Sea Pigeon, or whatever it is they call her, was transmitted to the other side of the periscope pond. George’s father and the captain of the Redbird would be warned before they sailed from New York of this new danger—if not afterward, by wireless. Of course the ship has a radio plant, hasn’t she?”
“Of course,” agreed the shipowner’s son.
“Nuff said! They never in this world, then, would take the usual course of sailing ships for South America. They would not cross the Gulf Stream. It will take the Redbird a little longer to buck the northerly set of the current; but that is what Captain Lawdor will do, take it from me! I figure they are now about off Hatteras, following the usual course of the coasting vessels.”