"Slogger, you—you—you——!" exclaimed the astounded Holcombe. "What on earth are you doing in this rotten rig-out?"
"Allow me to correct you on a few points, old bird," said Farrar. "In the first place, 'on earth' is hardly appropriate; secondly, my get-up could not be so very rotten, for it got the weather side of you."
"Well, carry on," rejoined Holcombe tentatively.
"There's little to tell," replied his chum. "We are on a strafing stunt. Bagged two Fritzes already. Wonder the skipper of the 'Epicyclic' hadn't given the show away."
This certainly was a puzzler. Later inquiries showed, however, that the officers and crew of the torpedoed transport were so occupied with the task of getting the boat away and anxious concerning the presence of the U-boat that they had failed to notice the approach of the little felucca. Nor did they attribute the strafing of the submarine to her agency, putting down the explosion to internal causes.
"Your independent cruise was kept very much in the dark as far as we were concerned," said Holcombe. "We hadn't the faintest inkling of it when we left Malta."
"Let's hope the secret won't out a while—at least, as far as Fritz is concerned," rejoined Farrar. "We're just beginning to like the job."