“Nor I,” replied the captain. He picked up the mouthpiece of a voice tube. “Collins? Try to get the flagship, please. Stiles, code our position and ask for orders. Report that we’re recharging batteries and shall submerge again in about four hours.”
Nelson pulled his boots on with difficulty, rocking about on the bunk, and had just succeeded when Martin climbed down from above like a monkey, yawning and blinking, to subside at Nelson’s side.
“We’re up, aren’t we?” he inquired sleepily. “Fine little sea on, I must say. We’ll have four or five hours of this now while they make juice. Oh, gee, why did I ever leave home?” He yawned dismally. “This thing of being a bloomin’ hero isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, Nep. Listen to that! Sometimes I wish this old sardine can had a double hull! Wouldn’t you think those seas meant to come right on in and sit in your lap? Well, no more sleep while we’re dancing around up here, that’s sure and certain! Say, wouldn’t it be a bully night to get a torpedo square under the conning tower?”
“Would a torpedo run straight in such a sea?” asked Nelson practically.
“Search me! I suppose not, though. Still, if a U-boat came close enough and aimed at our broadside—Bang! Good night, everybody!”
“But there aren’t any U-boats way over here, are there?”
“Probably not, though we aren’t so far out of the zone after all. If you could always tell where those sneaking critters kept themselves everything would be easy. They’ve got a cute way of being where you don’t expect them, Nep. Thank goodness, we’re getting air in here at last. It was sort of fierce when I went by-low.”
“Are they recharging the batteries now?” asked Nelson.
“Suppose so. They’d better be if they aren’t, because first thing anyone knows one of these little ripples will bust in a few plates and we’ll be exceedingly wet! Let’s go through and get some coffee.”
Martin didn’t trouble to pull his boots on, but shuffled, staggering along, to the forward quarters. Most of the men off duty were already there, which, since a submarine operating on the surface requires but few men to handle her, means that the forward battery compartment was crowded from bulkhead to bulkhead. Nelson and Martin plumped in amongst them, stumbling over a confusion of legs, and subsided on the edge of a bunk whose occupant, sprawled fully dressed therein, only grunted as they collided with his ribs. Two or three of the men were singing, although their voices were scarcely to be heard above the roar of the engines and riot of the seas, and the cook, looking rather sleepy, leaned against the stove and strummed imaginary music from a sauce-pan.