THOMAS LATIMER
of Groton, Connecticut
with the Author’s
greetings
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
|---|---|---|
| I. | [The Way of the Hun] | 1 |
| II. | [With the Coast Patrol] | 14 |
| III. | [The Lonely Reef] | 26 |
| IV. | [A Battle Underground] | 38 |
| V. | [A Chance Encounter] | 50 |
| VI. | [On the Thames] | 65 |
| VII. | [The U. S. S. “Gyandotte”] | 78 |
| VIII. | [The Raider] | 87 |
| IX. | [Off for the Other Side] | 95 |
| X. | [Overboard!] | 106 |
| XI. | [Twenty Fathoms Down] | 117 |
| XII. | [In the Submarine “Q-4”] | 133 |
| XIII. | [“Surface!”] | 148 |
| XIV. | [In an Irish Mist] | 161 |
| XV. | [The Mysterious Signals] | 177 |
| XVI. | [Through the Night] | 193 |
| XVII. | [Boys in Khaki] | 203 |
| XVIII. | [Tip, of the “Sans Souci”] | 217 |
| XIX. | [Off Heligoland] | 235 |
| XX. | [The Battle in the North Sea] | 247 |
| XXI. | [Castaways] | 258 |
| XXII. | [Mart Turns up] | 272 |
| XXIII. | [The Captain Comes Aboard] | 284 |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
| FACING PAGE | |
|---|---|
| [“Hands up!”] Frontispiece | |
| [Oars dashed at the water and the boat headed away] | 12 |
| [There was a crash as the shell sped from the gun] | 92 |
| [The big funnel crashed down upon the boy] | 112 |
FOR THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS
CHAPTER I
THE WAY OF THE HUN
The three-masted schooner Jonas Clinton was loafing along in a six-knot breeze some five hundred miles off the coast of France. For the time of year, the middle of October, the Atlantic in those latitudes was unusually docile and there was scarcely enough swell to slant the schooner’s deck. Overhead, a moon in its first quarter was playing hide-and-seek in a bank of purple-black clouds. The night—the ship’s clock in the cabin had just struck five bells—was so mild that the helmsman had not yet troubled to button his heavy reefer.