"But the propeller?"
"Let it rip. We'll run her on three."
"That ought to give her twenty-three knots at the very least, sir," suggested Spanner, who had come up from the engine-room to report.
"Not with the helm slightly over to counteract the unequal drive," observed Drake. "She'll do seventeen comfortably, and I doubt whether the Impregnable in tow will be making more than seven. I'll carry on, even if there's only one propeller left."
Communicating his find by wireless Drake received instructions to cruise eastward, in order to effect a junction with two destroyers sent out from Dover, unless she picked up definite information from passing vessels that might enable her to follow in the track of the filibustered battle-cruiser.
"It won't do to fall in with the Dover t.b.d.'s," remarked Fielding. "They'll know we are crippled, and our chances of gaining kudos will be knocked on the head."
"I don't mean to if I can avoid it," agreed Drake. "We'll shape a course S.S.E. for a couple of hours, and then N.N.E. for another two hours, and so on. We'll still be carrying out instructions, you see, but it will be a precious long time before we get in touch with the Dover destroyers."
Fielding and Cardyke smiled. They knew Drake well enough by now to know that if there were a way of gaining his end he would generally do it successfully and diplomatically.
"It's my private opinion," continued the lieutenant, "that the Impregnable is not heading up-Channel at all, but rather towards the Atlantic. I don't know why, but that's my firm conviction; so the longer we take before we hear any news the sooner we'll be able to retrace our course. I only hope that the other destroyers sent from Portsmouth and Portland won't snap her up."
"So do I, sir," agreed Fielding.