"NO MORE MEN GO OVERBOARD!"
In a time like this a man's coolness and nerve receive the utmost test.
Had Jack Benson been there at the wheel he would have swung both hands to the diving controls and shot below the surface.
But Cadet Osgoodby, now at the wheel, did not sufficiently understand the use of the diving controls.
Whatever was to be done had to be accomplished in the fewest seconds, or the little submarine craft was bound to be ground to scrap iron under the great bows of the steamship.
Both of the other midshipmen saw the danger in the same instant as did
Midshipman Osgoodby.
Yet neither of these young men knew better what to do than did the third. All they could do was to stiffen and to stand loyally beside their comrade in charge.
Perhaps for not half a second did Osgoodby hesitate.
Then he took the only chance that he saw; he threw the wheel over to port, jamming it there.
In strained, awful silence, the three waited. Never had seconds seemed so long before—not even under water.