Their work was completed at length, and Frenchy crept out into the pa.s.sage to look about. There was n.o.body in this part of the ship save themselves.

The two mischievous youths tugged the result of their labor out to the ash-chute. The time was propitious. The battleship and the auxiliary were approaching each other and signals were being exchanged. Captain Trevor was on the quarterdeck and word was pa.s.sed that target practice would immediately begin. In a moment Frenchy and Ikey darted out on deck and joined their mates without being observed by the master-at-arms.

Whistler and Al Torrance were already hovering about their stations. If the guns of Number Two turret got a chance, they hoped to have a hand in the manipulation of them.

Suddenly there came a hail from the masthead:

"Q'deck-ahoy-sir!"

The boy up there ran his cry altogether in his excitement. The navigating officer replied.

"Submarine astern, sir! Can see the periscope bobbing, sir!" was the statement that changed the entire atmosphere of the battleship from that of mere curiosity and interest to the wildest excitement.

CHAPTER XV

THE BIG GUN SPEAKS

The thing the lookout had spied bobbing in the sea was not exactly in the wake of the battleship, for those who rushed to the port rail could see it quite well. It wabbled about in a most eccentric way, as though the submarine attached to it had risen just as the _Kennebunk_ pa.s.sed and had received the full force of her swell.

"Jingo! that's a funny lookin' periscope," drawled one second-cla.s.s seaman, a new recruit, craning his long neck to see over the heads of the group which Frenchy and Ikey had joined.

"What did you think they'd look like?" demanded another.

"Something like a smokestack with a curlycue on the end of it," was the reply.

Frenchy and Ikey were giggling immeasurably. The former said: "Isa Bopp couldn't beat that, could he?"

"Oi, oi!" sighed Ikey ecstatically. "A periscope like a smokestack!"

But more than this new recruit aboard the _Kennebunk_ began to doubt the validity of the bobbing thing in the water astern. The big battleship was being swerved to bring the port broadside to bear upon the now distant object. The bugle rang for stations. The sudden activity of the whole ship's company was inspiring.

Of a sudden there came a hail from the other masthead where two lookouts stood in the cage with gla.s.ses.

"On deck, sir! Submarine just awash on the starboard quarter, sir!"

The cry was in truth a startling one. Whistler and Torry, who had sprung with their mates to the guns of the second turret, were on the starboard side. A second submarine? Why, it seemed the ship was being surrounded by these wasps of the sea.

A sharp whistle sounded in the turret. The officer in charge sprang to the tube.

"Ready for deflection and range? Stand by!" was the order.

"Aye, aye, sir!" responded the turret captain.

Ammunition boxes appeared as though by magic and were broken open. Plugs were swung back and the gun bores were examined. The starboard gun was quickly charged. Whistler and Torry both worked on her. They stood back, the gunner standing with his finger on the b.u.t.ton of the trigger.

"That submarine's going down!" gasped one watcher. "We'll lose her."

The next moment the executive officer's report for deflection and range came through the tube. Then: "Are you on?"

"On, sir!"

"Fire!"

It seemed that almost instantaneously with the roar and recoil of the huge gun the sh.e.l.l burst beside the sinking submarine. The explosion was terrific; the whole hull of the undersea boat heaved up, exposing its length for a few seconds. Then the sea-shark sank, going down like a shot.

"A hit! A hit!" yelled the men in turret two.

A cheer burst from the throats of the whole ship's company. Those who had not seen it, realized that the first gun fired in earnest by the _Kennebunk_ had reached its target.

"The old ship's bound to have good luck!" shouted a boatswain. "This is only the beginning! We'll sweep the seas of every Hun!"

The officers did not try to quell the cheering. The satisfaction and pride of all was something too fine to be quenched.

The battleship swerved again and ran across the track of the sunken U-boat. Bubbling up from the depths were blobs of black oil which lazily spread and broke upon the sea's surface.

The German submarine was done for. Her crew were buried with her at the bottom of the sea. The cheering ceased when this fact was realized.

"The poor square-heads!" muttered one fellow near Frenchy and Ikey Rosenmeyer. "They couldn't help it, I s'pose. They say they are driven into the subs. Aren't no volunteers called for."

"Where's that other sub?" demanded another. "Has she sunk, too?"

Frenchy and Ikey began to grin again. One of the boatswains said: "I bet that warn't no submarine ship at all. She's a joke. There! We're going to circle around and hunt her up."

"Do you think the Fritzies set something afloat to fool us?" demanded another man in surprise. "They're cute rascals, aren't they?"

"Not very cute just now," returned somebody, dryly. "They're food for the fishes."

"Just the same, if we'd got our attention completely fixed upon this here floating joker, the real sub might have sneaked up within range and sent us a lover's note in the shape of a torpedo."

Frenchy and Ikey began to look at each other with some worriment of countenance. Later it was reported that the first "periscope" could not be found. The two mischief-makers were greatly relieved.

"Say! that wasn't any joke," Ikey whispered to the Irish lad. "Oi, oi!

S'pose they had grappled for it and brought it aboard and found "_Kennebunk_" stamped on those iron belayin' pins we used for weights?"

"Don't say a word!" urged Frenchy.

"You bet I won't!" agreed Ikey. "Not even to Whistler and Al. We come pretty near putting our foot in it that time, Frenchy."

The Irish lad agreed warmly: "By St. Patrick's piper that played the last snake out of Ireland!" he reiterated, "no more practical jokes, Ikey. This is a lesson. And say!"

"What is it?"

"I left my knife down there in that room. I've got to go down after it before it's found and the master-at-arms asks questions."

"All right. I'll go down and watch out for you," declared the loyal Ikey.