CHAPTER XII
YANKEE CAMOUFLAGE
To Ted it seemed as though he were following the mandate of some madmanas he emerged from the conning tower and, grasping the periscope pole,steadied himself a moment before leaping down on deck. But, being aloyal son of Uncle Sam, and realizing that the first requisite of asailor was to take orders implicitly from his officers, he sprangnimbly on deck, rushed along the inclined steel plane, and as he camesplashing into the water that washed over the bow, flung himself intothe sea.
"I'll trust to 'Little Mack'," he said to himself.
Coming up to the surface he veered off sharp to the _Dewey's_ starboardand with long strokes pulled himself into the shadow of the partiallysubmerged submarine. The life-belt held him secure in the water andhe floated at ease.
Ted turned his attention toward the _Dewey_.
There, he saw, his example was being followed by other members of thecrew. As their names were called off by their commander a number ofthe crew leaped overboard.
One stood up on the rim of the conning tower and dived away from theglare of the enemy searchlights into the black shadows of the submarine.Suddenly the aft hatch was thrown open directly above the engine roomand in a moment several begrimed members of the engine crew scrambledup the ladder in quick succession and threw themselves into the sea.The enemy had ceased firing.
"What does it all mean?" pondered Ted as he floated, watching thegraphic picture.
Unable to solve the problem for himself, he turned his attention tothe nearest man in the water. He swam now only a few strokes away.With little effort Ted drew up to him. It was Bill Witt.
"Reckon they rammed a shot into her," yelled Bill as they beheld theirship sinking gradually.
"Looks that way, doesn't it?" answered Ted
The stricken submarine was gradually going down. McClure was therein the conning tower, of course; that old tradition of the sea, aboutevery skipper going down with his ship, held true in the case of asubmarine as well. Jack was there, too, in all likelihood; he hadbeen standing by his commander as Ted and Bill hurried up to hurlthemselves from the deck. Ted gulped as he thought of his chum. Wasit all over with Jack? Would the Germans rescue the American ladsbobbing about in the water?
In another moment the _Dewey_ was completely under, leaving many of hercrew floating in the open sea, at the mercy of their enemies.
"Tough luck!" stammered Ted as he linked arms with Bill over theirlife-belts.
Bill was dauntless even in the face of death.
"You never can tell," he said. "I am guessing that 'Little Mack' hasanother card up his sleeve."
Down in the turret of the submerged _Dewey_ an extraordinary scene wasbeing enacted. McClure, Cleary and Jack were standing together as thevessel glided away under the water.
"It worked---it worked!" shouted the young lieutenant as he orderedthe submerging process discontinued and the _Dewey_ held on an evenkeel.
"What worked?" gasped his dazed executive, who had yet to grasp thesignificance of his commander's action in ordering members of thecrew overboard.
"Why, don't you see? Those Germans think they sank us. When theysaw our boys leaping into the water they took it for granted one oftheir shots had landed and we were done for. They think the boysleaped overboard to escape death in the hold of a mortally woundedYankee. And here we are, safe and sound, under the water!"
"But what about those fellows swimming around up there?" asked Jackin startled tones.
"We'll go back and get them in a few minutes after we've tended tothis Prussian gentleman that we hypnotized," shot back his commander,as his jaw squared and his eyes flashed.
Jack and Officer Cleary stared at each other.
"Well, of all the nerve!" gasped Cleary.
"Great Scott, man! it takes a real honest-to-goodness Yankee like youto get away with such a trick."
Veering off to port, the skipper steered a straight course for severalhundred yards. Then the _Dewey_ cut out into a short half circle andin another moment came to a stop sixty-five feet below the surface.
"Put her up," came the order to the navigating officer at the ship'sair pumps.
There was an interval of strained silence as the commander waited untilthe eye of the periscope had cleared the spray that dashed againstthe glass.
"There they are!" he announced. "Light still turned on the spot wherewe went down a minute or so ago. Guess they are waiting to seewhether we really are done for."
A signal to the _Dewey's_ engine rooms put the vessel in motion justlong enough for her commander to turn the nose of the craft slightlyto starboard, and then the submarine rested quietly again.
"Friends, Americans, and fellow patriots: my compliments to theImperial German Navy," began "Little Mack" as he leaned forward totouch off a torpedo---and there was a rare smile on his lips.
For an instant the _Dewey_ quivered as the torpedo shot from the bowof the submerged ship and raced away under the water. Her commanderhugged the periscope glass and watched for developments.
"Got him!" he shouted excitedly, dancing about wildly on the gratingof the conning tower. "It's a hit beyond all doubt. We struck heralmost amidships."
The German vessel had been dealt a deathblow. She was sending updistress signals.
"She's afire now and can't last long," mused the _Dewey's_ commanderas he continued to survey the ship in distress. "Her magazines willgo in a minute."
The chief concern of the _Dewey_ now was the reclaiming of her sailorsfrom the sea.
There was little likelihood of gun fire from the sinking German warship.Her crew were bent on launching lifeboats and getting away beforethe final plunge that would carry the ship down to the bottom.Accordingly, the Yankee submarine came to the surface and commencedpreparations for the rescue of her own crew. Lights were hung atthe mastheads fore and aft and a huge searchlight hurriedly adjustedon the forepart of the conning tower and the electrical connectionsmade amidships.
Out of the mist that overhung the sea burst forth suddenly a greatglare. Through the fog loomed a white mass of flame like the blastof a thousand furnaces, with tongues of fire piercing the night gloom.The sea was rocked by an explosion that reverberated over the waterslike the crash of a million guns and tossed the submarine like a pieceof driftwood.
"One less warship for the Kaiser's navy," remarked McClure.
"And all because of your rare cunning, old boy," countered his executiveenthusiastically.
Out of the darkness came a shout for help close at hand. Switchingthe searchlight in the direction of the cry, Commander McClure behelda head bobbing in the water only a few yards away. It was one of hisown crew, one of the electrician's helpers who had gone overboardwith the rest in the mad scramble to outwit the Germans. In a fewminutes he was hauled aboard, dripping wet, his teeth chattering fromthe exposure in the water.
"They are all around here," the boy chattered. "We managed to keeppretty close together in the water."
McClure grasped his hand.
"You are a brave lad," he said. "Every man of you has proved hismettle by taking a daring chance. Go below now, son, get into warmclothing and gets something hot to drink."
Coasting to and fro in the water, scanning the sea now to the right,now to the left, the _Dewey_ continued the search for her crew.
Singly, in twos, and in one case three, men were picked up until itseemed to the commander that every boy who had gone overboard hadbeen reclaimed from the sea.
"Call the roll below decks," the commander instructed his executiveofficer. Jack and his commander remained in the conning tower stilloperating the searchlight.
In a few minutes Officer Cleary returned.
"All safe?" asked "Little Mack."
"No; two still missing," was the executive officer's reply.
"Who are they?" McClure queried.
"Ted Wainwright and Bill Witt," came the answer.
Brighton Boys with the Submarine Fleet Page 12
