[1] Sinker—A lump of iron to which is attached the buoy-rope, and which serves to anchor the buoy to the bed of the sea.
CHAPTER XIII
A BAFFLED QUEST
LIEUTENANT-COMMANDER RALPH RAXWORTHY, D.S.O., officer commanding H.M. Destroyer Windrush, leant over the after end of the bridge stanchion-rails to give final instructions to his sub-lieutenant.
"She's the one we want," he shouted, in order to make himself heard above the hiss of escaping steam. "Mind how you close her. Examine her papers, and if you find anything of the slightest suspicious nature, put her under arrest."
"Very good, sir," replied Sub-Lieutenant Allerton, instinctively patting his revolver-holster before dropping into the waiting boat. "Shove off for'ard. Give way, lads!"
The boat, with the armed boarding-party, was soon speeding through the black water in the direction of the supposed Memnon, which lay rolling sluggishly in the full glare of the destroyer's searchlight.
Allerton, too, had his suspicions. Expecting to find a crowd of curious and perhaps amused seamen peering at the Windrush's boat, he was considerably puzzled to see only one man on the tramp's bridge and her deck absolutely deserted.
Even as he looked, a flash, followed by a roar, came from the Memnon's deck. A cloud of black smoke, its edges tinted with silver and the rays of the searchlight, rose sullenly in the faint breeze.