"All the same, it's part of the game, and only by constant practice can they keep in a state of efficiency. Our fellows are pretty smart at manoeuvring, but these Germans appear to run all sorts of needless risk, and still manage without serious accidents. Finished changing? Good! You might get on deck and see how things are progressing."
Barely had Detroit resumed his post at the helm when out of the fog came a succession of dull flashes, punctuated by the deafening detonation of a number of quick-firing guns. Then, like a veil rent in twain, the fog partly lifted, revealing a large battleship, cleared for action, and blazing away with her light armament in the direction of the small British yacht.
CHAPTER II
Through the Fog
"A German man-of-war!" exclaimed Detroit.
"Yes, one of the 'Deutschland' class," added Hamerton, who at the first report had followed his companion on deck. He recognized the battleship by her three telescopic funnels as belonging to a type immediately preceding the first of the Kaiser's Dreadnoughts. Although her principal armament consisted of only four eleven-inch and fourteen six-inch guns, she was not an antagonist to be despised.
A bugle blared and the firing suddenly ceased.
"She's engaged in manoeuvres," continued the Sub. "Those destroyers we saw are evidently about to attack her, and in the fog she mistook us for one of them."
"Is that likely?" asked Oswald.
"Rather. I know what it is to be on the qui vive. Officers and men are bound to get jumpy, and a dinghy might easily be mistaken for a torpedo boat. Remember the case of the Russian Baltic Fleet and our trawlers in the North Sea some years ago. But now's our chance to get rid of the poor fellow we picked up. Hand me the Code Flag and letter H."