Without a word Aubyn passed the message on to Holcombe, who was with his chief on the destroyer's bridge. The sub read the momentous appeal:
"Transport 'Epicyclic' torpedoed, sinking. Lat. 34° 20' 30" N., Long. 25° 15' 10" E."
"Reply, 'Am proceeding to your assistance,'" ordered the lieutenant-commander, addressing the waiting signalman. "South 50 East, quartermaster," he added, as he passed the steam steering-wheel on his way to the chart-room.
Aubyn could have delegated the setting out of the new course to his sub-lieutenant, but conscientious in all matters he himself took parallel rulers and dividers and laid off the compass course that would bring the "Antipas" to the position indicated by the sinking "Epicyclic."
"Not so dusty, eh?" he remarked to Holcombe, when the result was obtained. The preliminary direction he had given to the quartermaster was only half a degree out. "Seventy-two miles: two and a half hours' run. Let's hope we'll be in time."
A shadow fell athwart the chart. Both officers turned to find the barefooted signalman standing at the open door.
"Can't get no reply from 'er, sir," he reported.
"H'm! Dynamos out of action, I suppose," observed Aubyn. "Looks bad. All right; carry on."
The "Antipas" was cleared for action. Stanchion rails were stowed; only life-lines, led fore and aft, serving to prevent men from being washed overboard. Everything on deck was battened down, for in spite of her high fo'c'sle and exaggerated "flare" in her bows the destroyer was shipping green seas right over her bridge, the water almost instantly changing into clouds of vapour as it drifted aft against the red-hot funnels. The destroyer had just entered the limits of the path of the storm experienced by the "Georgeos Nikolaos," and on her new course she was making for the centre of the severe atmospheric disturbances. In really dirty weather a craft of this type is one of the most undesirable that can be imagined, for possessing great length to a comparatively small beam she drives through rather than over the waves, while to the vibrations imparted by the pulsations of the powerful engines must be added the disconcerting hogging and sagging of the lightly built hull.
On her errand of succour the "Antipas" was running great risks, apart from the danger of carrying on at full speed through the gale. In the rain storms there were chances of colliding with other vessels summoned by the general wireless S.O.S., while the U-boat that had dealt the transport the fatal blow might be lying in wait, possibly with others, to repeat her exploit by torpedoing some of the rescuing ships. Yet, in spite of the triple risk, Aubyn, like every one of his brother officers of the Senior Service, had not the slightest hesitation in proceeding to the scene of the disaster.