Part 12 (1/2)

The entire message was repeated, and then there was silence--the dense and seemingly impenetrable silence that had existed before.

Came the nearer and more powerful crackle of the radio.

”One of our destroyers is replying,” Lieutenant Mackinson announced, and one by one he jotted down the words:

”Continue same direction. U. S. destroyer be with you in about two hours.”

”Understand you,” the return message came back a moment later.

”Submarine still on stern. Has fired two shots, but both missed.”

It was a thrilling moment for the boys from Brighton. Out there in the blackness of the night an American fighting craft was separating itself from the rest of the fleet to run full speed to the a.s.sistance of a helpless merchantman, and, if possible, to do battle with the enemy U-boat.

For an hour and a half they sat there, speculating as to the possible outcome.

”I'd give a month's pay to be aboard that destroyer,” exclaimed Jerry enviously. ”That's the sort of excitement I like. Just imagine coming up to that merchantman just in time to save her from destruction, and then having a regular battle with the submarine, and finally watching her sink, with a sh.e.l.l hole torn in her side!”

”Yes,” added Slim, ”and imagine being aboard that merchantman, with a sh.e.l.l hole torn in her side before the destroyer arrives!”

”It's pretty cold swimming on a night like this,” said Joe. ”I've tried it, and I know.”

Lieutenant Mackinson, still seated before the wireless instrument, signaled them for quiet again. Another message was coming through s.p.a.ce.

It was in code, but was one that was easy for the lieutenant to translate, for he had heard it before.

”Submarine disappeared. Returning to fleet. Convoying _Memphis_.”

”Go on deck, keep your eyes busy off the port bow, and you may see something interesting,” the lieutenant told them.

Following the suggestion they went above and had stood there for perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes when suddenly the lookout in the crow's nest sang out: ”Destroyer approaching, two points off the port bow.”

Almost at the same instant there loomed out of the dense darkness a faint light, apparently miles away. For a moment they would see it, and then it would be gone, only to reappear again, another time to be extinguished. But obviously all the time it was coming nearer.

They noted, too, that a similar process was being enacted by the cruiser in the lead.

”What does it mean?” asked Slim.

”The destroyer is just using another sort of wireless,” Joe explained.

”She is blinking her ident.i.ty to the fleet, and the cruiser out there is signaling recognition.”

The next time the destroyer signaled she was almost abreast of them, but about two miles away to the north. Her message then could be read by all the boys. The words it spelled out, however, were a complete riddle:

”Love--sky--sand--curtain--run.”

It was not for several hours that they learned that the captain of the destroyer had flashed a message that he would convoy the _Memphis_ several miles further westward, and then rejoin the others, and that the fleet commander, in flas.h.i.+ng back ”bundle,” had given his O. K., with an admonition for speed.

There being no further necessity for the spy watch which had been maintained on the previous night, the boys drew lots to determine which one should do duty until morning in the wireless room, and it fell to Joe.

But the first faint gray streaks were hardly painting the eastern sky when Jerry and Slim, unable to sleep longer, came out upon deck to take for themselves a general survey of the danger zone.