Their eagerness was increased, were that possible. As the cloud of smoke grew, they were all aware that it was from a ship in flames. For some reason the submarine had not torpedoed the freighter, but had set her aflame with fire bombs.
Had the crew of the steamship been given a chance to escape? That question was really the mainspring of the Americans’ desire to reach in such a hurry the scene of the catastrophe.
There was the thought of vengeance, too. If they could but overtake the German pirates and punish them as they deserved!
“It is all very well,” said Belding, “to put forth the excuse that these Heinies only do what they are ordered to do. But how many of us Yankees, for instance, would obey our officers if they ordered us to commit such fiendish crimes as these submarine crews do, right along?”
The chance that the German submarine would remain in the vicinity of the freighter till she sank, was not overlooked by the commander of the Colodia. All on board were urged to keep their eyes open for the first sign of the enemy.
But it was the refugees from the Western Star that the destroyer first raised—a flotilla of small boats being pulled steadily to the eastward where lay the islands surrounding Teneriffe.
The Colodia kept away from the survivors, fearing that she might draw the fire of the submarine and that thereby the safety of the small boats would be endangered.
The Western Star was a roaring furnace, from stem to stern. The smoke and flame billowed out from her sides, offering a picture of devastation that was fairly awe-inspiring.
But the sea immediately about the burning ship, as far as the Colodia’s crew could see, was quite empty. There was no sign of the enemy submarine.
A signalman called to the bridge, flagged the survivors, and a man arose in the leading boat to answer. The Americans made out that the German submarine had been in the vicinity until within a very few minutes. She had but recently disappeared beyond the burning steamship, but had not at that time submerged.