"Oh, all right," answered Trent, in an injured tone; "but I should have thought that the prospect of handling that thousand quid would have made you more amiable."
As a matter of fact it had not occurred to Lawless until that moment that he had won his uncle's wager and was, therefore, entitled to the thousand pounds. But now, strange to say, he did not feel elated in the least degree; the triple tragedy in which the Knat, the German cruiser and the Zeppelin had been involved, together with, probably, the loss of several hundred men, dwarfed everything else for the time being.
"How many of our men have gone under do you think?" he asked.
"Can't say, though I'm afraid we've lost between twenty and thirty. But that's nothing compared with the enemy's losses."
As he spoke, Trent pointed to various small groups of figures swimming about or hanging on to pieces of wreckage. Some were survivors of the Knat, some of the German cruiser, and in several cases men who less than a quarter of an hour ago had been endeavouring to kill one another were now rendering each other mutual help—such are the uncertainties of war.
"Even now," went on the Sub-Lieutenant, "the chances are that we shall all be drowned before——"
He was interrupted by a shout from Lawless and, looking round, saw a couple of destroyers approaching at full speed, followed by several patrol boats.
"Saved!" he ejaculated.
A few minutes later the destroyers had arrived on the scene and lowered boats to pick up the survivors, friend and foe alike. Among the last to be rescued were Lawless and his junior officer, and when the boats had returned to the destroyers the latter made off at full speed towards the land, leaving nothing but a few masses of floating débris as witnesses of that memorable fight.