There were soon indications that others of His Majesty's ships had picked up the "Epicyclic's" S.O.S. Wireless messages in code were picked up, which, by reference to the secret code book, were found to have been sent from the destroyers "Antigone" and "Amaxila," although both were several miles farther from the scene than was the "Antipas."
At about one bell in the forenoon watch the look out reported a tramp bearing two miles on the destroyer's port bow. Ordered to "make her number" the vessel proved to be the s.s. "Andromeda" of Avonmouth, bound for Damietta.
"Very good," commented Holcombe, who was officer of the watch at the time. "Signal to her that a hostile submarine has been reported in latitude and longitude so and so "—giving the position indicated in the "Epicyclic's" message for aid. "We don't want to spend the whole day in picking up torpedoed crews."
A quarter of an hour later the "Andromeda" was out of sight, and the "Antipas," swept again and again by the terrific seas, held swiftly on her course.
"We'll have a deuce of a job, Mr. Holcombe," remarked Aubyn, as he rejoined his junior officer on the bridge. "Unless the weather moderates it will be a touch-and-go business to run alongside—that is, if the transport's still afloat."
"She may be able to pump oil overboard," suggested Holcombe. "According to——"
"Periscope on the port bow!" shouted a voice that, although stentorian in volume, was only just audible above the howling of the wind and the hiss of the flying spray.
The gunlayer of the for'ard quick-firer was quick on the mark, but a peremptory order caused him to relax his hold on the trigger of the firing-pistol. Only just in time did Aubyn detect the real nature of the supposed periscope: a portion of a foretop mast that, weighted down, was floating in a vertical position.
It was one of those common instances that would bring a volley of chaff upon the head of the mistaken look-out man, but it is also an indication of the effect of the mental and physical strain that arises from constant expectation of sighting the outward and visible sign of the modern pirate.
"No deception this time, sir," observed Holcombe, as a burst of brilliant sunshine lit up the sinking transport, which had hitherto been hidden in the scud.