We had to cling to the torpedo-tube to argue it out, for the deck was now so steep we couldn't stand on it.
"Get into the boats you young idiots!" shouted Mr. Pattison. "Why are you keeping the boats waiting, you lop-eared sons of Ham?"
So we settled the matter by both jumping at the same time. I was jolly glad that I did not let him have his own way.
Just as we had all shoved off, Mr. Pattison being the test to leave, we heard a cracking noise—a bulk-head must have given way—"No. 1" almost righted herself—her bows came out of water and pointed higher and higher, till they were almost upright. There she stayed while you could have counted fifteen or sixteen, and then slowly slipped down out of sight.
There was just a little swish as the sea rushed in to cover her, two of her capstan bars came shooting out of the water, and poor old "No. 1" had disappeared. I felt rather snuffy, and I knew Tommy did too. We soon were aboard the Strong Arm, and down in the gun-room they all crowded round and asked questions. It was not till then that I discovered that my cap was missing, and found too that my hair was all matted together with blood.
Tommy searched and found a cut about an inch long, and felt rather annoyed, I think, that he himself hadn't anything to show.
You can imagine I felt jolly proud to have been wounded, though it did rather take the gilt off the ginger-bread not to have known it at the time. It was probably a piece of the shell that smashed the anchor-securing chain.
It must have delayed the Strong Arm nearly an hour, to stop her engines alongside "No. 1" and to get all of us aboard, and by that time the pirate cruiser was only a cloud of black smoke on the horizon, with the three little destroyers which had again come out of the bay steaming after her at full speed.
CHAPTER XI
The Action off Sin Ling