Suddenly a cloud of black smoke rose from the U-boat's deck. When it dispersed under the force of the stiff breeze Fritz was no longer to be seen.
"She's gone an' busted!" shouted an exuberant bluejacket, and the men gave vent to a cheer. Their satisfaction increased when, nearly half an hour later, the felucca sailed through a large patch of oil in the midst of which were floating some charred pieces of wood and several canvas-covered caps.
"A sixth nail in the tiller, sir," remarked the warrant officer. "Our thirteenth day out, you'll remember."
"Not so sure about it, Mr. Gripper," objected the sub. "In any case, we didn't strafe her. Ah! I thought so," he exclaimed, as the twin periscopes of the U-boat appeared at a distance of less than five hundred yards in the felucca's wake. "Wing her, Sampson."
The submarine was playing with her prey like a cat with a mouse. Under the camouflage of the clouds of smoke she dived, to reappear—this time astern of the "Georgeos Nikolaos."
Smart as was the gunlayer of the after quick-firer, the U-boat was smarter. Before the weapon could be swung round and the sights adjusted she had disappeared again.
When after a considerable interval the U-boat broke surface she was well out of range of the felucca's guns, although quite within a striking distance with her own, for a shell burst within a stone's throw of the British craft's quarter, the flying fragments knocking splinters from the bulwarks and holing the sails in twenty different places.
At Mr. Gripper's suggestion a tar-barrel with a long pole wedged into the bung-hole, and so weighted that the pole floated vertically, was quickly rigged up and thrown overboard. For a while it served its purpose, for the pursuing U-boat, spotting what appeared to be a periscope, sheered off until she had wasted half a dozen shells before blowing the barrel into a thousand fragments.
Then, her patience being exhausted, the U-boat set to work in grim earnest to pulverise the felucca. Completely outranged and outclassed, the "Georgeos Nikolaos" nevertheless put up a gallant fight, although none of her shells went within half a mile of her foe.
A direct hit brought both masts down, littering her deck with splinters, shouldering canvas, and a tangle of ropes. The ponderous lateen yards trailing over the side set up a drag against which the motor was powerless, and describing a quadrant of a circle the felucca lost way, broadside on to her assailant.