"Come on, boys; take the boat at the next davit," said the captain. "I will be with you in a moment."
The boys entered the little dory and sat down. The navigating officer was the last one to step in. He stood there with his instruments in his hands, and cast a gloomy look along the deck. "Too bad, too bad!" he said reflectively.
"Say, Ralph, I have an idea that we are hoodoos!" said Alfred, with a serious air.
"Who is a hoodoo?" asked the captain, approaching and overhearing the conversation.
"Hoodoo, nothing!" answered Ralph.
"Well, it begins to look like it," responded Alfred. "There is some sort of deviltry around wherever we have happened to be ever since the war began."
Notwithstanding the gravity of the situation, the captain could not repress a smile, which he quickly suppressed, as he answered:
"Then what would you call me? They have sunk four ships under me by torpedoes, and one by a mine. You have seen and experienced some of the other adventures I have had within the past ten days, and now this is another vessel to go down under me on account of a mine," said the captain.
"A mine! a mine, did you say?" almost shrieked Alfred.
"Yes; one of the floating mines that the Germans are strewing about in open defiance of all the laws," answered the captain with a bitter voice.