“Are we going down? What’s up?” came from Percy Simmons below.
“We’re all right, Persimmons,” hailed Captain Ralph, in reply, as his faculties came back with a rush. “Just check your engines, will you? There’s something I want to find out. Malvin!”
“Aye! aye! sir! Narrow escape, sir. I was ’most frightened to death! I thought we were goners,” came back the man’s voice from the bow.
“Well, apparently we have suffered no harm. A trick of some sort has been played on us. I mean to try to find out what it is. You and Hansen attend to lowering the anchor at once. Then get the small boat overboard.”
“The boat, sir? What for, sir?”
“Obey my orders and ask no questions,” shouted Ralph. “Now, then, Harry, you go below. Search thoroughly for a leak. I don’t think there is one, but still I’ll take no chances.”
“But wha-wha-what was it?” persisted Harry. “It must have been a ghost, that craft. We hit it and went right through it as if it had been smoke. I—I’m scared, Ralph.”
“Well, work off your fears in attending to your duty below. We hit something, all right. It wasn’t the boat. I want to find out what it was.”
“Humph! this all comes of going chasing a ghost ship!” muttered Harry, none too graciously, as the anchor chain rattled out and he departed on his mission.
Left alone on the bridge, Ralph concentrated in deep thought for a few moments. Then he galvanized into action.