"Serious. Serious isn't the word for it. We have lost a great factor in our means of offence and defence. We are no longer practically invisible."
"Can the defect be remedied?"
"Only by subjecting the plating to a fresh treatment, and that can only be done at our base in Sumatra. But be that as it may I mean to continue my search for the 'Vorwartz'. Possibly the margin of superiority lies with her, but, without boasting, I venture to assert that John Restronguet will prove a match for Karl von Harburg. I hope the wireless is intact, Kenwyn?"
"It is, sir," replied the second officer. "We have just tapped a message from the P. & O. liner, 'Coghlania,' seventy miles south of Brindisi."
"Anything of importance?"
"No, sir; merely on a matter of ordinary routine."
"Very good, Mr. Kenwyn. By the by, you might let me know the state of your accumulators. Have we sufficient power to take us to the Ægean?"
"I'll ascertain, sir," replied the second officer.
Before noon the man and boy rescued from the fishing-boat had recovered sufficiently to sit up. Their story was a thrilling one. Hythe's knowledge of Italian enabled him to follow the patois without much difficulty. They had, in company with seven other craft, put out of Porto Empedocle, on the south coast of Sicily. It was a fine night with a light off-shore breeze, the weather being fair. Thus tempted they ventured farther from land than they were accustomed to. Shortly after midnight a strange phenomenon was observed. The stars were shining through a blood-red haze, while a strong sulphurous odour was noticed. The superstitious fishermen, frightened more by omens than by bad weather, prepared to return homewards, but the wind died completely away. At two in the morning a strong nor'easterly breeze sprang up, which soon developed into a cyclonic gale. Hastily reducing their canvas the fishing fleet drove at the mercy of wind and wave, till after ten minutes of great peril they found themselves once more becalmed in an agitated sea. Once more sail was hoisted, in anticipation of a favouring breeze.
Suddenly the water seemed to be rent in twain. A deep trough appeared less than a hundred yards from the sternmost boat, and horror-stricken the terrified Italians found that their frail vessels were being sucked into the abyss. Then the cavity in the sea closed and instead a column of water, stones, mud, steam, and smoke was thrown up with tremendous force. The starlight gave place to inky blackness, and the next thing the padrone of the "Favarganna"--that being the name of the craft belonging to the rescued man--realized that the doomed vessel was on her beam ends. She righted, though half filled with water. The old man had barely time to lash his grandson and himself to the rudder head, ere a huge wave swept the boat from stem to stern and down in the depths she plunged.