“What’s up now?”
Henri’s startled question referred to a dull sound, that came from a point quartering to their course, and a fountain of water spurting into the air.
“A mine let go, I’ll bet,” surmised Henri.
“You’re right, and a corker, too,” admitted Jimmy.
The captain had evidently sighted something else from his position on the bridge, for his firecracker voice shouted the order:
“Run up those flags!”
Three miles away a fleet of a half dozen destroyers were tearing toward the little steamer, with black bands of smoke striking down from each raking funnel.
The captain on the bridge had seen an impatient signal snapping from the flagship of the fleet.
The curiosity of the fleet was soon satisfied, but the captain complained that they ought to have known that he and his ship were no strangers in these parts.
He little reckoned, then, that the good old hulk was to get its wrecking blow that night from the inside and not the outside.