"Aye, sir," called up Eph.
"Take a lantern and get down into the compartments along the keel forward. See whether we're taking in any water."
"Aye, aye, sir."
"We struck part of a derelict, or something else submerged," guessed Lieutenant Danvers. "We're lucky, indeed, if our plates are not sprung."
Then he called down to Biffens to follow and aid Eph Somers.
It was almost dark now. Jack, reaching over, switched on the electric sidelights outside, and also the white light at the signal masthead. Then he turned on the searchlight, sending its bright ray through the gathering darkness.
"Look over there, sir," muttered Jack, holding the searchlight ray steadily on an object he believed he saw. "Don't you make out, sir, bobbing up and down when the waves part, what looks like the stump of the broken-off mast of a vessel submerged? Is it a death-dealing derelict in the very path of coastwise navigation!"
"By Jove, yes!" gasped Lieutenant Danvers, hoarsely. "Your eyes are sharp, Benson, and your judgment sound. That, then, was what we struck on—the mast-stump of a water-logged, sunken derelict! If our underhull plates are sprung, down we go to the bottom!"
They waited, in dreadful anxiety, for the report of Eph from the region of the keel plates.
They were far out to sea, and a submarine cannot carry a lifeboat!