Not a breath of air stirred, but the speed of the vessel6 sent a breeze whipping over the poop of the steamer where a group of battered7 men stared fixedly9 over the long frothing path of the screw. Several of the group wore bandages, two, unable to stand, sat in steamer chairs, all had the pale faces of all-night watchers, but every eye in the crowd scanned with feverish10 intensity11 the spangled ocean over which they fled.
The wind snatched at the clothes and bandages of the intent men. Masses of seaweed swept like gray blurs12 down the sheer of the tug's wake. Just beneath them the propeller13 rushed with watery14 thunder.
"Yonder she rises!" cried one of the watchers, pointing at two wireless15 masts that rose like the fins16 of a racing17 shark above the green surface of the Sargasso.
"Yonder she rises!" repeated a voice amidship, and more faintly still came the repetition from the bridge, "Yonder she rises—hard a-port!"
A sudden shift of the rudder shook the Vulcan from peak to keelson. Next moment the tug was speeding squarely across a seaweed field, and another crook4 was added to the smoke mark in the sky. The Vulcan's blunt prow18 drove through the seaweed at a great rate, while the clammy mass swung back together not sixty yards behind the churning screw.
A strange race had developed between the tug and submarine. When both crafts were on the surface in open water, the submarine had a knot or two advantage of the Vulcan and could have picked her up in four or five hours. But early in the night Caradoc had discovered that the powerful screw of the steamer, designed, as it was, to propel vast loads, could make the higher speed across the algae19 beds.
On the other hand, if the submarine dived to escape the drag of the weed, she again became the faster craft. But, in this instance, when the submarine dived, the Vulcan would immediately take to the open lanes and do more than preserve her distance. These constant shifts and turns explained the ricocheting course that was marked in smoke across the whitening dawn.
The submarine stood well out of water and skimmed along in the pink gleam like a long, slender missile. Its flat deck, wireless masts and conning20 tower stood etched in black against the morning light. She was consuming a fairish stretch of open water at a high speed.
Leonard Madden replied without removing his eyes from the rushing boat, "She has to be. All of Germany's naval22 plans depend on her destroying us."
"It does—and, faith, may Oi ask why?"
"If we get to Antigua and report this to the British admiralty, how long would this Sargasso reshipping arrangement last?"
"Right you are there, Misther Madden," agreed Hogan at once. "We'd woipe 'em out, wouldn't we? We'll make it, too. If we stood off th' little didapper all night, you know we can all day."
Madden considered the fleet little vessel. "No, I rather think she will capture us."
"And how's that?"
"The Sargasso doesn't extend indefinitely. In fact we are nearing the southern limit. Have you taken a look forward?"
"No, I haven't," said Hogan, taking vague alarm at Madden's tone. "What's wrong?"
"I don't see many more big seaweed fields ahead. If she gets us in open water——"
"Why bad luck to it! Bad luck to it, Oi say!" cried Hogan as the wind whistled about him; "running us out o' the bushes loike a swamp rabbit."
Just then the submarine veered23 off her straight course somewhat to extend her open water run for two or three miles up the edge of the field. A length view showed her to be a delicate looking craft. Her sharp prow cut the water with hardly a ripple24, in sharp contrast to the Vulcan, which shouldered up a waterfall as she lunged forward.
Suddenly, and rather unexpectedly, the submarine porpoised. There was a swash of foam25, and she was gone.
The men on the poop stepped around to the side of the tug and stared anxiously southward. Bits of flotsam mottled the blue expanse, but it really appeared as if the saving drift weed were thinning to nothing. Hogan glanced back over the way he had come.
"Sure it'll be a fair field and no favor, sweet Peggy O'Neal!" he hummed nonchalantly under his breath.
At that moment a violent shaking went over the Vulcan, and the short boat swung her prow about with tug-like promptness. It was as if the stout26 little craft had swung around on her heel.
"Faith and would ye shake a man's arrum off!" shouted Hogan at nobody in particular. "And are ye going back to meet the friendly little wasp27?"
That was exactly what Caradoc was doing. He had swung the Vulcan about in less than a hundred yard circle and was plowing28 straight back the way they had come.
The crowd on the poop held their breath at the daring maneuver29. Tug and submarine were now rushing at each other full tilt30, only one ran under water, the other on the surface. Suppose the submarine should thrust up a periscope31 for an instant—a cough of the torpedo32 tube and the Vulcan would be blown to scrap33 iron.
The men on the poop ran forward, staring with frightened eyes over the gray-green soggy field through which the Vulcan ripped her way.
It seemed fantastic to think that somewhere under that lifeless weed human beings spun34 swiftly along, freighted with the most terrific engine of destruction. What strange warfare35! Who could have fancied that when savages36 began to use clubs to maul each other it would end in this diabolical37 refinement38! Weapons, weapons, weapons—the history of man's undying savagery39 working under new forms of civilization! The war submarine—what a monstrous40 offspring of genius!
The sun rose like a white-hot ball in the brazen41 sky and the men held to the rails, mouths open, and stared ahead into the safe open water, expecting every moment for the Vulcan to spatter skyward in a volcano of fire and steel.
The boat itself rattled42 along with that insensibility of mechanism43 that sometimes astounds44 an apprehensive45 man. Twenty minutes later, she turned into the open lane, and was rushing westward46 again at full steam.
An immense relief spread over the crew. Galton, who stood on the bridge at the wheel beside Caradoc, blew out a long breath and wiped the sweat from his face, Farnol Greer began a windy whistling of "Winona, Sweet Indian Maid." Madden felt as if a weight had been lifted off his brain. Hogan was humming a tune47. But all eyes turned anxiously seaward, to see where the submarine would "blow."
Ten minutes later, a distant ripple in the water caught their watchful48 eyes and the wireless masts popped up, on the opposite side of the great weed field, four or five miles distant.
A spontaneous cheering broke out on the Vulcan's decks.
"Back track! We put one over! Hurrah50 for Cap'n Smith!" they shouted above the pounding of the engines.
Everyone but Caradoc wore the fixed8 exultant51 grin of the man who outwits his rival. The submarine had been thoroughly52 outgeneraled. North and west of the Vulcan lay the whole Sargasso for an endless chase. The diving boat had lost the great advantage of having the steamer cornered.
As the crew whistled and sang the Vulcan kicked a frothy course down the long westward lane. To every one's surprise, the submarine did not dive immediately, but straightened herself on the other side of the seaweed field on a course parallel with her quarry53.
Madden climbed up on the bridge and found a pair of binoculars54 in the chart room. He took these outside and trained them on the little vessel. Apparently55 the submarine intended to remain at the surface for some time, for she had opened her hatches and an officer had come out on the slender deck, and stood looking at the Vulcan through a telescope.
At the distance, Madden could see the fellow plainly, and even the inky shadow he threw on the deck. The officer perused56 the tug for several minutes, then allowed his glass to wander around the horizon.
"They've come up for air," observed Caradoc, who had approached his friend from behind. "I believe we'd best stop that. Good air is a luxury with those fellows." He turned to Galton, who was steering57. "Swing her into the northwest, my man."
The tug answered to her helm with a quiver, and in twenty minutes more was nosing her way again through the ooze59 of weed. The German officer calmly completed his survey, folded his telescope, then disappeared down the hatch. A few minutes later the submarine dived and the ocean lay empty in the burning sunshine.
From below came the clanging of Gaskin's gong announcing dinner. It was odd how the little details of life went calmly on even when life itself was threatened with extinction60. As Madden went below to his meal, he met Malone who came from below, looking as black as an Ethiopian. The mate had been directing the firing in this extreme necessity.
The two fell in together as they walked to the wash room.
"I daresay those fellows wish they had sunk the Vulcan when they had her," observed the American.
"They needed 'er theirselves," explained the mate in a matter-of-fact way. "Those German cruisers 'ave captured a whole flotilla of prizes lately, and they needed th' tug to 'andle 'em for 'em."
"And they didn't need the Minnie B?"
"Oh, no, not at all."
"Why didn't they sink her at once?"
"Her cap'n told me she carried more copper61 than one submarine could reship, so they 'ad to wait for another, as they didn't want to throw no copper away."
Madden nodded. "It was the second submarine I saw on the night she foundered62." He began smiling when he thought what a bewildering mystery the vessel had been, and how very simple was the explanation.
By this time Caradoc had joined the two men, hoping to snatch a sandwich and a cup of coffee before he was needed again.
"Have we plenty of coal, mate?"
"Bunkers are 'arf full, sir."
"What's she turning over now?"
"Six, seventy-five to th' minute, sir." There was a pause, then Malone asked, "Is there any 'opes of them running out o' fuel?"
"Not likely; they make the trip to Hamburg, you know."
"Sail ahoy!"
This stopped the trio instantly.
"Where away?" called Caradoc.
"Dead ahead, sor!"
All three turned and went running back updeck. When they regained64 the bridge, Madden stared in the direction indicated. At first the western horizon looked empty, then along its level line his eye caught two tiny marks against the brilliant sky. As it was too small for his naked eyes, he resorted to the binoculars once more. Caradoc was doing the same thing.
"W'ot is it, sir?" inquired Malone anxiously.
When he had focused his glasses, Madden made out two fighting tops—steel baskets circling steel masts, thrust up menacingly over the slope of the world.
"W'ot is it, sir?" repeated Malone uneasily.
Just then Madden's eye caught the flag at the peak, as it fluttered under the drive of the distant ship. It was the black cross on the white ground, with the dark upper left quarter of the German navy.
Caradoc took down his glass at the same time.
"They've been using the wireless," he stated evenly, "to run us in a cul de sac. I might have known German cruisers were close around." He looked steadily65 at the distant fighting tops, then turned to Galton.
After a moment, he said to Malone:
"When you go below, send me up coffee and a biscuit."
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1
vomiting
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| 吐 | |
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2
tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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3
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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crook
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| v.使弯曲；n.小偷，骗子，贼；弯曲(处) | |
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tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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6
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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8
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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10
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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11
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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12
blurs
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| n.模糊( blur的名词复数 )；模糊之物；（移动的）模糊形状；模糊的记忆v.（使）变模糊( blur的第三人称单数 )；（使）难以区分 | |
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13
propeller
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| n.螺旋桨，推进器 | |
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14
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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15
wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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16
fins
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| [医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌 | |
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17
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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18
prow
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| n.(飞机)机头，船头 | |
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19
algae
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| n.水藻，海藻 | |
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20
conning
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| v.诈骗，哄骗( con的现在分词 )；指挥操舵( conn的现在分词 ) | |
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21
sling
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| vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓 | |
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22
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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23
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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24
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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25
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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wasp
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| n.黄蜂，蚂蜂 | |
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28
plowing
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| v.耕( plow的现在分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
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29
maneuver
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| n.策略[pl.]演习；v.(巧妙)控制；用策略 | |
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30
tilt
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| v.(使)倾侧；(使)倾斜；n.倾侧；倾斜 | |
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periscope
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| n. 潜望镜 | |
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32
torpedo
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| n.水雷，地雷；v.用鱼雷破坏 | |
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33
scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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34
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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35
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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39
savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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40
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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41
brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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42
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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43
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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44
astounds
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| v.使震惊，使大吃一惊( astound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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45
apprehensive
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| adj.担心的，恐惧的，善于领会的 | |
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46
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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47
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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48
watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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49
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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50
hurrah
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| int.好哇，万岁，乌拉 | |
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51
exultant
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| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
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52
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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53
quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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54
binoculars
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| n.双筒望远镜 | |
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55
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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56
perused
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| v.读（某篇文字）( peruse的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指）细阅；审阅；匆匆读或心不在焉地浏览（某篇文字） | |
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57
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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58
steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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59
ooze
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| n.软泥，渗出物；vi.渗出，泄漏；vt.慢慢渗出，流露 | |
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60
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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61
copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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62
foundered
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| v.创始人( founder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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63
galley
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| n.（飞机或船上的）厨房单层甲板大帆船；军舰舰长用的大划艇； | |
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64
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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65
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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