Part 29 (1/2)

Jack and Frank, struggling in the water where they had been hurled by the collision of the _Queen Mary_ and the _Indefatigable_, were glad of the company of Harris, who had bobbed up so suddenly alongside of them in the darkness.

Harris greeted Jack's exclamation of surprise with a grin.

”Yes; it's me,” he replied, discarding his grammar absolutely; ”and I'm glad to see you fellows again. Question is, what are we going to do now?”

”Well, you know as much about it as I do,” declared Jack. ”I haven't any idea how far we are from sh.o.r.e, but I am afraid it is farther than we can swim.”

All three cast their eyes over the water. There was not a spar nor other piece of wreckage in sight. But Jack made out a few moments later, some distance to the east, what appeared to be a s.h.i.+p of some sort. He called the attention of the others to it.

”Suppose we might as well head in that direction, then,” declared Harris.

”Right,” agreed Frank.

He struck out vigorously and the others did the same.

It was a long ways to that little speck on the water and the lads knew that if the vessel were moving away from them they probably would be lost. But at that distance the vessel seemed to be stationary, so they did not give up hope.

Half an hour later Frank exclaimed: ”We're making headway. s.h.i.+p must be standing still.”

”Well, I wish it would come this way,” declared Harris. ”We're still a long way from safety.”

”It's probably a German, anyhow,” said Jack, ”so if we are rescued it will be only to be made prisoners.”

”That's better than being made shark bait,” said Harris; ”and, by the way, speaking of sharks, I have heard that there were many of them in these waters.”

Frank shuddered; for he had a wholesome disgust for the man eaters.

”Hope they don't smell us,” he said.

”And so do I,” agreed Jack. ”We couldn't hope to fight them off, for we have no arms.”

”I've got a knife,” said Harris, ”but I am afraid I wouldn't know what to do with it should a shark get after me.”

The three became silent, saving all their strength for swimming.

An hour later they had drawn close to the vessel.

”It's a German all right,” said Jack, regretfully.

”Any port in a storm,” said Harris. ”That talk of shark a while back made me feel sort of squeamish. I want to get out of this water.”

They continued to swim toward the s.h.i.+p.

”Wonder what's the matter on board?” exclaimed Frank, suddenly.

They had approached close enough now to see men rus.h.i.+ng hurriedly about the deck. Hoa.r.s.e commands carried across the water, though the words were unintelligible to the three swimmers at that distance.

”Something wrong,” said Jack, quietly.

”That's what I call hard luck,” declared Frank. ”Here we think we have reached a place of safety and something goes wrong.”