"What do you think they'll do?" Bob asked his uncle.
"It's hard to tell," he replied.
"But aren't we going to put up a fight?" Jack broke in.
"If we get a ghost of a chance we'll fight all right," Captain Ole assured him.
And now it would have been possible to throw a stone from the deck of the Valkyrie to the other boat. The captain, standing in the bow of the pursuing boat was holding a megaphone to his mouth and was evidently shouting some order to them but, so great was the noise of the water rushing by, they were unable to hear a word. Then, throwing the megaphone to one side he gave an order to a man standing by his side and he, motioning to several natives, who were standing several feet back, moved toward the machine gun which had already been uncovered.
"They're going to take a shot at us," Captain Ole declared.
"Then we'd better get inside," Mr. Lakewood said.
"But you don't—"
Bob started to say something but the sentence was never finished for, just as the man gave the signal to fire, there came a terrific concussion from the bowels of the larger ship. For the fraction of a second, it seemed to the boys, it quivered as though wondering what it was all about, and then the air seemed filled with flying objects.
"She's exploded," Bob gasped.