Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns; Or, Sinking the German U-Boats

by Halsey Davidson

  CHAPTER XVIII

  MORE TROUBLE

  Philip Morgan and Al Torrance both were in the yawl, and were assignedto pull oars if the engine went dead from any cause. The two youngerSeacove boys were taken by the warrant officer, Mr. Mudge, aboard thebuoyant raft.

  "Well, old man," muttered Torry in his mate's ear, "this is a newexperience. We've never been shipwrecked before."

  Ikey on the raft was bewailing the loss of some of his duffle. "Oi, oi!And a nice new black silk neckerchief, too! Oi, oi! All for the fishesyet."

  Mr. MacMasters laughed, and did not order the boys to cease talking as asterner officer might have done.

  "We may as well take it cheerfully," he said. "I'm thankful there'snobody lost. And there can be no blame attached to any of us because ofthe loss of the boat."

  "Ah, that's all right," grumbled the warrant officer on the raft. "Butthink of those miserable Huns, sneaking away in here and dropping amine in a channel where nothing but small craft dare sail."

  "Excursion steamers from Charleston use this channel," Mr. MacMasterssaid. "I know it to be a fact."

  "Ah! That's the Hun of it," repeated the second. "To sink a craft havingaboard a lot of innocent and helpless folk out on a pleasure excursionwould be just his delight."

  First of all the two officers had looked over their charts and decidedon the course to pursue. Charleston was not the nearest port.

  The barometer was falling again and there was every promise of more badweather. It was decided to make for a small town behind the islands, andinstead of continuing through the channel where the _Kennebunk's_auxiliary steamer had been mined, it seemed better to take advantage ofthe tide and run back to the open sea.

  There they proposed to skirt along the outer beaches of the islandsuntil they reached another passage marked on the charts as being theentrance to the sheltered harbor of the port in question. The distancewas about ten miles.

  There was no danger from reefs in this direction, and if they had tobeach the boat and the raft the shores of the islands would seem tooffer safe landings. They were yet to learn different.

  Yet the decision was wise as far as the two officers could be expectedto know without a special knowledge of the conditions. What mainly theyfailed to apprehend was the swiftness with which the new storm wasapproaching.

  The little yawl chugged away cheerfully and drew the life raft out ofthe channel. No other craft had been in sight when the _Kennebunk's_auxiliary steamer was blown up, and therefore none had come to theirassistance.

  The local fishermen and navigators of small craft appreciated the comingof this second storm on the heels of the first. It would probably pounceupon the coast with suddenness, so the fishing boats had already run forcover.

  The yawl and raft got out into the open sea safely, and Mr. MacMasterssteered for the harbor in which they expected to take refuge.

  The first island was long and narrow--a mere windrow of rock and sandbreaking the force of the sea. The huge combers coursing up its strandbroke twenty feet high and offered nothing but utter destruction to anysmall craft that attempted a landing.

  "That is no welcome coast," Mr. MacMasters said. "I wonder if weshouldn't have gone behind the islands after all, in spite of thereefs."

  But it was too late to change their plans now. The first strait thatopened between the islands was a mass of white water.

  The raft was clumsy, and the yawl could make but slow headway. Suddenlythe wind fell; but with its falling the sea began to rise.

  "What does it look like to you, Mr. Mudge?" Ensign MacMasters asked theofficer on the raft.

  "More trouble. The wind's going to spring on us from a new quarter,"was the reply. "See yonder!"

  Away to the northwest a cloud seemed rolling upon the very surface ofthe sea it was so low. At its foot, at least, the sea sprang up in afoamy line to meet the pallid cloud. There was a moaning in the air, butdistant.

  "That's going to hit us hard!" cried Mr. MacMasters. "It's more than anordinary gale."

  "That's what it is, sir," admitted Mudge.

  "Wish we were ashore!" shouted the ensign.

  "Any chance, that you see?"

  They were off the coast of the second island now. That was heavilywooded and the shore was more broken. But it seemed as inhospitable asthat of the one of wider beach.

  The newly risen gale was yet a long way from them, the low moaning ofthe tempest seemed distant.

  The swell beneath the yawl's keel suddenly heaved into a gigantic waveupon the summit of which the boat was lifted like a chip in amill-stream.

  Some of the crew shouted aloud, in both amazement and fear. Thepropeller raced madly; then the engine stopped--dead.

  "Out oars! Look alive, men!" was the ensign's command.

  The clumsy raft tugged at the end of her hawse. The yawl went over thetop of the wave and began to coast dizzily down the descent.

  The rope which held it to its tow cut through the swell. It tautened--itsnapped!

  The loose end whipped the length of the yawl viciously and threw two ofthe crew flat into the boat's bottom.

  The oars were out. Ensign MacMasters yelled an order to pull. PhilipMorgan and Al Torrance found themselves throwing their entire strengthagainst the oars.

  The raft rose staggeringly upon the huge wave behind the boat. Mr. Mudgehad a steering oar out; but the raft wabbled on the summit of the swellas though drunken. They saw the castaways upon the raft coweringhelplessly.

  Then like a shot the white wave rode down upon them with the pallidstorm-cloud overhead. The yawl was headed into the gale and the oarsmenpulled like mad.

  Mr. MacMasters yelled at them. They did their very best. The sleetwhipped their shoulders like a thousand-lashed knout. The darkness ofthe tempest shut down upon them and the raft was instantly lost tosight.

  "Frenchy! Ikey!" Whistler Morgan gasped, and Torry heard him.

  But they could do nothing to aid their chums. Duty in any case held themto their work. They pulled with the very last ounce of strength theypossessed.

  The yawl's head was kept to the wind and sea; but it was doubtful if shemade any progress.

  "Pull, men! Pull!" shouted the ensign again and again.

  He inspired them, and perhaps their straining at the oars did keep theyawl from overturning at that time. Yet such ultimate fate for it seemedunavoidable. The wind and sea lashed it so furiously that Whistler toldhimself he would not have been surprised if the boat and crew weredriven completely under the surface.

  He had seen a good bit of bad weather before this; but nothing like whatthey suffered at this time. The warring elements fairly bruised theirbodies. Sometimes the boys felt themselves pounded so viciously betweenthe shoulders that they could scarcely draw their breaths.

  Now and then, above the tumult of the tempest, the ensign's voiceencouraged them. Whistler, sitting three yards away, could not see theofficer at all.

  Then, with the unexpectedness that is the greatest danger of theseoff-shore gales, the wind changed once more. It snapped around in amoment to due west. The cross seas lashed the yawl impetuously.

  Whistler heard an oar snap. The man behind him fell upon his back in thebottom of the yawl. His broken oar entangled with Whistler's, and thelatter lost stroke.

  There was a yell from the ensign. Whistler heard Al Torrance shriek. Thenext moment the yawl rolled completely over, and he was struggling inthe sea and in the pitchy darkness underneath the overturned boat!