“That’s right,” said Amos, “tell me what is there in Leonidas and his three hundred deathless Spartans holding the pass of Thermopylæ beside some of the things that are happening all around us every day, what with these fearless aviators, the men who go down under the ocean in submarines, and those who laugh at death, like the crew of that destroyer are doing this very minute?”
“I’m hoping they get through all right, after all,” Jack wished. “You can see that by now they’ve reached the last Allied warship. Still they keep right on, changing their course constantly so that the white bubbles in their wake look like a snake. There, did you hear that shot from the shore? I can see the smoke, but there isn’t a sign of a cannon in sight. I reckon that was a time when the destroyer got a bite.”
Hardly had his last word been spoken than there was a mighty crash. The Thunderer had sent her compliments at the Turkish shore battery so cleverly hidden, and the location of which had been revealed by that one incautious shot.
CHAPTER X.
AMIDST THE CRASH OF BIG GUNS.
As if that one tremendous crash had been a prearranged signal, several others among the scattered war vessels fired a shot toward the shore where that burst of smoke had betrayed the concealed Turkish battery.
Somehow, as Jack afterwards said, it reminded him forcibly of a pack of dogs hanging around and watching one of their number skirmish for a bone; no sooner had he pawed up the ground and made an important discovery than the entire pack scrambled for its possession.
Unfortunately the smoke cloud drifted in front of the two boys so as to shut out their view, for which they were sorry. But there could not be the least doubt that the terrible volley must have utterly annihilated the members of the luckless battery, as well as smashed their guns.
At least no further shot came from that particular quarter as long as the little destroyer remained within range.
“They got what they invited, I guess,” Amos exclaimed, looking relieved when no further shots came from the brush in front of the gully where the battery had been lying hidden for days perhaps, awaiting a chance to do something.