"We're in time, I fancy," said the lieutenant-commander, "Fritz and other trivialities permitting."
With the guns' crews keeping a sharp look out for U-boats the "Antipas" circled completely round the "Epicyclic," pumping out gallons of crude oil as she passed to windward. Then, seizing her opportunity, the destroyer ran alongside the sinking ship on the leeward side—Aubyn had had to do this manoeuvre several times before, and was getting expert—and was made fast while the remaining Tommies and the officers and crew gained safety on the destroyer's deck.
It was an anxious ten minutes, for in spite of flexible "springs" and huge "pudding fenders" the lightly built "Antipas" was grinding heavily against the heeling sides of the transport, the port bilge keel of which was momentarily above the oil-quelled waves; but with no other casualty amongst the destroyer's crew beyond a petty officer having received a nasty "nip," the "Antipas" drew clear.
Before she had put two cables' lengths between her and the transport the latter's bows rose higher in the air, at an angle of sixty degrees. To the accompaniment of a super-cloud of smoke and steam the torpedoed vessel glided, rather than plunged, beneath the surface of the iridescent water.
The bark of the after four-inch quick-firer instantly diverted Sub-Lieutenant Holcombe's attention from the impressive spectacle of the sinking ship and the comparatively insignificant sight, though none the less to be ignored, of a torpedo cleaving through the waves. The missile had apparently been badly adjusted, for it shot clear of the water as it passed the trough of the heavy seas. Nevertheless it was heading straight for the bows of the rapidly moving destroyer; and had the mutual speed and direction been maintained, the weapon would have struck the "Antipas" amidships.
The gunlayer had been exceptionally smart on his sights. Even as the lively helmed destroyer swung round, listing heavily as she did so, a shell struck the water directly in front of the locomotive weapon. A tremendous waterspout and a deafening crash announced that a Schwartzkopff torpedo had ended its career in a manner not anticipated by its Hunnish makers or the Black Cross pirates on board the lurking U-boat.
For the next twenty minutes that U-boat had a most unpleasant time, for in spite of the heavy seas the alert destroyer "cut rings" round the spot where the periscopes were seen in the act of disappearing. Depth charges were brought into action, but whether the powerful explosions strained the submarine's hull and caused her to sink for good and all, or whether she succeeded in evading the terrible menace, neither Aubyn nor his officers and crew were able to determine. In any case, Fritz had received such a severe mental shock that the U-boat made no further attempt to torpedo the destroyer and the heavy load of rescued men.
"What's that craft doing, sir, I wonder?" asked Holcombe, calling his skipper's attention to a two-sticked sailing vessel lying head to wind at about four miles to leeward.
"Dunno; but we'll soon find out," was the laconic rejoinder, for Aubyn was perfectly aware that U-boats have been known to receive information from supposedly harmless neutrals.
The "Antipas" turned, steadied on her helm, and bore down upon the suspicious craft. On decreasing the distance the officers discovered by means of their binoculars that she was a felucca flying the Greek mercantile flag, while strung out to leeward of her were four of the transport's boats.