Part 11 (1/2)

So the four young men went to bed for some much-needed rest and sleep, and when they awakened it was almost time for mess--directly after which they were to take up their night watch again.

”I hardly think we will be troubled with U-boats to-night,” the captain told them, ”for it is perfectly clear and there will be a full moon. The sea is calm and we readily could discern a periscope a long distance away.”

Truly it was a beautiful night. And it was in this alluring quiet of seemingly absolute peace that one of the tragedies of war soon was to be enacted.

The Brighton boys and their friend and superior officer, the lieutenant, had been in their appointed places hardly more than an hour when Joe and Jerry at the same instant caught the sounds of some sort of scuffle on the deck above.

It came nearer and clearer until finally, as it reached a point near to the top of the stairway under which Joe was concealed, the latter could discern the fog-horn voice of the first a.s.sistant engineer.

”G'wan with ye, now,” he commanded, breathing heavily, as though from some violent physical exertion. ”G'wan with ye, I say, or ye'll be findin' it mighty unhealthy fer ye. It's meself that'll be moppin' up the deck with ye if ye try to get gay once more.”

The first a.s.sistant engineer was a mighty mountain of a man, but his voice broke off as the commotion started again. Certainly he must have a rough customer to deal with, thought Jerry, if he, with all his great physical strength, could not entirely quell him.

”Ye will, will ye?” hissed the voice of the engineer again. ”Thry to bite me, eh?” and there was the terrible smash of a fist, and the unmistakable sound of a man falling upon the deck. ”Ye dirty hound, I've a mind to boot ye into the sea.”

And then there were other voices. Jerry heard the captain demanding an explanation, and the s.h.i.+p's doctor spoke.

”I found him tamperin' with the wires near the dynamos,” the first a.s.sistant engineer was saying. ”I niver liked his looks annyway, if ye'll pardon me, sir, fer sayin' it. And whin I asked him what he was about, he thried to git away. I grabbed him, and he showed fight. I guess I give 'im all he wanted, though, that last time.”

”So?” said the captain, in a voice so stern it made Joe wince. ”And what does this fellow do aboard the s.h.i.+p?”

”He's a third-cla.s.s machinist, sir,” the engineer replied. ”But if ye'll excuse a word from me, sir, I think he's a first-cla.s.s crook.”

”Yes, and I believe he's worse than that,” the captain added; and then, in a voice which seemed to shake the vessel: ”Stand up!”

There was a strained silence for a moment. Then--

”Get Lieutenant Mackinson and those boys,” the captain continued, and the s.h.i.+p's surgeon started down the stairway to find that Joe and Jerry already were summoning Slim and the lieutenant.

”It looks as though we'd caught the man,” the doctor whispered.

As the four reached the deck where the captured man stood between the first a.s.sistant engineer and the captain, who had by this time taken out his revolver, there was a gasp of astonishment from Joe, followed by a louder ”Holy smoke!” from Slim.

”Do you recognize this man?” the captain asked in a sharp tone.

”I should say I do, sir,” Joe responded. ”_He is the man who was planting ammunition in the waters near the navy yard that night before we sailed_!”

”The very same one, sir!” Slim exclaimed, with equal positiveness.

The s.h.i.+p's surgeon, who had followed the others upon deck, stepped closer for a better inspection of this enemy. At the same instant the prisoner, striking out with both hands, knocked the captain's revolver hand into the air, and thrust the engineer from him. Before anyone could interfere he was das.h.i.+ng down the deck toward the stern.

Just as he took a wild, headlong leap over the rail the captain fired.

While the captain, through a speaking tube, was instructing the man in the pilot house to signal below ”Reverse engines,” the others rushed to the stern of the s.h.i.+p.

Far behind them in the foamy trail left on the moonlit water by the vessel they saw what seemed to be the head of a man bobbing up and down--and then it entirely disappeared. The s.h.i.+p was turned, and that portion of the sea searched, but without avail.

”Gone,” said the captain in tones of very evident relief. ”Well, it was death for him, one way or another, and he took his choice.”