CHAPTER IX Found—One U-Boat!
CAPE May Light loomed in the distance like a lone sentinel of the night. At intervals of ten seconds its long penciled rays shot out over the ocean as the giant electric beacon oscillated in its rhythmic swing around the horizon. Dimly in the distance were reflected the lights along the boardwalk of the seashore resort, and far off toward the north the faint blur against the night skyline marked the spot where Wildwood nestled on the sands.
The Nemo rode at anchor on the smooth summer sea. To starboard lay a trim little United States destroyer that had stood guard for days over the submerged U-boat. Here and there on the surface of the sea could be seen the outlines of a submarine chaser, a fleet of them having come out to welcome the newly arrived salvage ship.
Mid-afternoon the Nemo had arrived from her home base in Long Island Sound and was awaiting now the morning to begin operations on the foundered German submarine. There had remained before sundown only a brief time for a superficial examination of the sea bottom, but in that time Jay Thacker and Dick Monaghan, crack divers of the Bridgeford Company, had donned diving armor and spent an hour under water.
Imagine the surprise of the navy officials when these two youths had returned to the deck to report they could find no trace of the lost U-boat!
"I don't quite understand this at all," remarked Lieutenant-Commander Wilberforce, U. S. N. He and Captain Austin were conferring together on the U. S. S. Monadnock, the destroyer.
"Our men declare positively that this is the identical spot where the U-boat was located by divers some time ago," explained the officer. "We have not been sending divers down these last few weeks since the department ordered us to wait until they sent salvage facilities. But we have stood guard here continually and can assure you absolutely that no foreign salvage corps has been working here."
Captain Austin ventured the opinion that the U-boat had been broken up by the shifting waters during a recent ten-day gale that had raged up and down the coast.
"No, I hardly think so," hazarded Commander Wilberforce. "When last our divers were down they reported the U-boat well above sea bottom. It's a mystery to me."