[1] To lose the number of one's mess, i.e., to die, whether by violence or through natural causes.
CHAPTER XII
HUNTED
"HERE'S a fine lash-up!" remarked Broadmayne to his chum. "We look like getting it in the neck. I won't give much for our chances if our destroyers take up the chase. Cain, or whatever his name is, may be a very clever and cunning rogue, but he's bitten off more then he can chew."
"It's rough luck on us," rejoined Vyse. "I don't hanker after the idea of being sent to Davy Jones's locker by a British destroyer."
"Pro bono publico," quoted the Sub. "However, we must make the best of things and trust to luck. Give me half a chance and my name's Johnny Walker as far as this hooker is concerned."
The chums were having a breather on deck before turning in. Seven miles to the nor'west the Wolf Light was sending out its red and white flashes. The Alerte, most of her scars patched, was making towards the Scillies; but whether Captain Cain intended to use one of the numerous and secluded channels between the islands as a hiding-place, was a matter for speculation as far as Broadmayne and his companion were concerned.
Gerald and Rollo had worked hard during the day. That, no one could deny. During the action with the Surcouf they had remained passive spectators, taking refuge behind the conning-tower when the Frenchman's shells began to rip the Alerte's upper works. But when they saw the two men with the machine-gun topple headlong, they had made a simultaneous rush to the assistance of the badly-wounded men. This they did with a clear conscience. There was nothing in the act that could be construed as aiding and abetting the pirates in an unlawful act.
Nor did they hesitate to tend the other wounded members of the crew. Strangely enough, with all his elaborate preparations, Captain Cain had either neglected or purposely omitted to provide adequate surgical and medical stores, and in consequence the less severely wounded suffered terribly through lack of instruments and ether-chloroform. It was a painful business both to the wounded men and their unqualified surgeons to have to extract jagged slivers of metal without even the application of local anaesthetics. All the Sub and his companion could do was to cleanse the wounds with warm water and iodine, and bind them with rough-and-ready bandages that from an antiseptic point of view would have made a medical man shudder.