"Turn the light on the knockabout, now, and keep it there," directed the submarine boy.
There was a seven-knot breeze blowing. At the speed at which the submarine boat was traveling the distance was soon covered.
And now the searchlight revealed two men in the standing-room of the sloop, one of whom, a bearded man, was looking backward over his wake much of the time.
"Can one of the marines fire a shot to stop those fellows?" asked Eph
Somers.
"In the air do you mean, sir?" asked the midshipman. "Certainly."
"Then I wish he'd do it."
Bang! The discharge of the rifle sounded sharply on the night air.
"It ain't stopping 'em any," muttered Eph, after a few seconds had gone by.
"Nothing would, unless fired into them," volunteered Midshipman Terrell.
It did not take long, however, to run the submarine up alongside of the sloop, at a distance of about one hundred yards.