Young Cogggins called out, "Well, that's over with, anyway! They say lightning never strikes in the same place twice."
The Captain smiled. "That's true enough," he said, "but for the sake of safety I had better tell you that these submarines nearly always travel in pairs. We are apt to meet the sister U-boat yet."
A silence fell. "I don't feel sleepy," murmured young Coggins.
"Wouldn't it be nice to sleep on deck to-night?"
"Deck for mine!" said Porky in a low voice. "I will say I don't get many thrills out of this being cooped downstairs when there are subs all around."
"Downstairs!" quoted Coggins scornfully. "Don't let the Captain hear you talking about the 'downstairs' of his ship, you landlubber, you!"
"Well, I don't care what you call it! It's downstairs to me anyhow! And whatever you call it, I don't want to sleep there."
"Bosh!" said Coggins. "I tell you we won't see another sub on the whole trip. Do you know the percentage of boats that see subs on their way over?"
He launched into a flow of statistics. Porky and Beany seemed to listen. In fact they were thinking hard. As usual, they thought the same thing, and as they were fully conscious that they were doing so, they found the process as satisfactory as a regular spoken conversation.
"Me for bed," said Coggins finally.
"You don't mean bed, do you?" asked Porky. "How the Captain would feel if he should hear you call his nice berths 'beds!'"