The remaining three vessels, still going at full speed, tried to dodge the shots, while their own guns were kept at work. The British destroyers had selected each her own target, and continued pounding away at it from a distance. Superior range and weight of guns soon proved their advantage. The second of the German boats was sunk, then the third, and finally the fourth; the Kaiser's Navy was poorer by the loss of four useful units.
Promptly, when the first of them went down, the trawler patrol hastened to the spot to pick up survivors. From all four some few were rescued, to be taken to England as prisoners.
Three officers and ten men had been saved by the Dainty when the cruiser steamed near, stopped, and dropped one of her boats. As the boat came alongside, Mark Redisham glanced instinctively at the men's caps and was surprised to read the name H.M.S. Dauntless. He looked at the midshipman in the stern sheets. It was his brother Rodney.
"So that's your new ship?" said Mark when they had greeted each other. "She's a smart one. I hope there are not many casualties."
"Hardly any to speak of," Rodney answered. "One officer and four men slightly wounded, that's all; and hardly a scratch on any one of the ships. We've wiped off an old score, anyhow. What we've just done will balance the loss of the Atreus."
"Yes," interposed one of the German officers who had been listening very attentively. "But the balance is still considerably in favour of Germany. You are forgetting what our Emden has done; you are forgetting how our Admiral von Spee annihilated a squadron of your Dreadnoughts, how one of our tiny submarines recently sent three of your best cruisers to the bottom. Did we not sink two more of your cruisers only last week? Have we not successfully bombarded your fortified coast towns——?"
What more he would have said was left unspoken, for at that moment one of the bluejackets in the boat leapt from his seat and seized him by the throat with one strong hand, while he lifted the other to strike him.
"Stop that! Stop that!" cried Rodney Redisham in a voice of stern command.
The seaman instantly let go his hold and stood back abashed.
"Beg pardon, sir," he said humbly, touching his cap; "but my brother Tom went down with the Atreus; my mother and sister were killed by a German shell in Haddisport, and I didn't reckon I was doin' no harm in goin' for the first German as have come within reach of my fist."