“Oh, hardly that!” Jack told him. “There wouldn’t be one chance in ten she could run the batteries on the shore in that narrow part of the straits. They’d sink her with their smaller guns; but even if she did get through, of what use would she be in the Sea of Marmora, with the Turkish fleet to reckon with?”
“But see how she still keeps flying on, Jack, as if she had wings. I never saw such speed before with any kind of boat. What can be the object of it all, do you think?”
“I expect it’s what I spoke about a while ago, Amos. She has been sent out to serve as a floating target for the concealed batteries of the Turks.”
“What colossal nerve!” cried Amos, almost holding his breath as he watched the swift progress of the destroyer. “She offers herself as a target for all the guns they can bring to bear on her. The chances are three to one they’ll never come back again after making the circuit.”
“Those aboard have their orders, and they’ll carry them out despite all the Turkish guns within ten miles. They may go down, but if, by sacrificing themselves, they show up one or two hidden batteries that can be destroyed by the battleships, they will have died gloriously, like thousands of others of their kind have done since the days of the Spanish armada.”
Thrilled by the spectacle of valor exhibited by the crew of the little destroyer, the two lads stood and kept their eyes riveted on the flitting boat. They could not remember the time when they had felt such a deep interest in anything. When presently the first shell exploded near the destroyer Amos gave a cry of alarm.
“Oh, that was a close shave, let me tell you, Jack!” he exclaimed. “I wonder if the brave commander or any of his crew could have been killed, or seriously wounded by that shell. And, Jack, doesn’t the destroyer look sort of familiar to you? I honestly believe it’s the very same boat we were on last night.”
“That would be hard to say,” his chum explained, “because most of them are built along similar models, and it would be easy to mistake one for another. You can see a dozen of the scout-boats right now inside the straits. But that particular one has for some reason been picked for this daring game of drawing the fangs of the enemy, by tempting the gunners in their hidden batteries to take a chance.”
“Whoever the commander is I take off my hat to him,” asserted Amos, suiting the action to the word.
“Oh! it strikes me that bravery is becoming mighty common these days, Amos. Already there have been dozens of astonishing feats carried out on both sides that make those stories in history look pretty poor.”