'We're off Gallipoli now,' he said. 'That's where I should have been by this time, Ken, if G 2 had not popped up just at the proper moment.'
'It isn't exactly a salubrious spot,' Ken answered with a smile. 'The "Lizzie" has been chucking her 15-inchers into the town whenever she hadn't anything else to do.'
For the next two hours the launch nosed her way cautiously south-westwards, through the wet smother. Most of the time she kept fairly close under the Asiatic shore. There were fewer forts that side, and less danger therefore of attracting attention.
During the whole of that time she never sighted so much as a rowing boat. The Straits were as empty as a country lane on a winter night.
About eleven Ken, who had done another spell of stoking, went forward again to where his father kept his ceaseless watch.
'Getting near the Narrows, aren't we?' he asked in a low voice.
'We are, Ken. If my reckoning is right Nagara Point is almost on our port bow.'
'There's a light of some sort just ahead, sir,' said Morgan from the wheel.
'I see it too,' said Ken quickly. 'Can it be from the fort?'
Quickly the captain rang to slow still more. With barely steerage way the launch moved noiselessly forward. There followed some moments of breathless silence, while the three stared at the dull mysterious glow which was now almost exactly ahead.