Part 39 (1/2)
The signal was blown loud and clear.
Crash after crash followed the bugle's command, as steel met steel when the mines were clamped together.
”Silence!” roared the executive officer as the men began shouting in their excitement.
As fast as the mines were bolted together they were rolled to the side of the s.h.i.+p. There tackle was quickly hooked to them, then at command the heavy spheres were swung over the side, being carefully lowered to the boats below. There they were hung over the opposite sides of the small boats, one mine balancing the other. This would make placing the mines much easier than if they were to be taken over into the boats, for in that case they would have to be lifted out.
In an incredibly short time every one of the sixteen deadly implements of warfare was on the boats. Each boat held either an ensign or a mids.h.i.+pman, who was in command.
Sam was in one of the large whaleboats, while Dan occupied the wherry with an ensign and an oarsman.
”Three minutes, lads,” came the information from the deck.
The jackies sent up a cheer that might have been heard far over the sunlit sea. The morning was a glorious one, the sea having quieted down to a sluggish roll that scarcely disturbed the s.h.i.+p at all, though the small boats bobbed about somewhat, thus giving more zest to the work.
”Lay mines,” came the command.
Half a hundred hardy tars bent themselves to the oars and the fleet of boats slipped away from the towering sides of the ”Long Island,” the men pulling for the mine field off to the southeast.
Each Battles.h.i.+p Boy carried a spy gla.s.s under his arm. Now and then he would place it to his eye for a long look at the s.h.i.+p.
”The s.h.i.+p is making signals, sir,” Dan informed the ensign in command of his boat.
”What do they want?”
”They are saying that whaleboat number two is off its course, sir.
Orders, sir, to bear more to the southwest.”
”Wherry, there,” spelled Dan. ”That's us.” He acknowledged the signal.
”Pull up. Wherry lagging behind!”
Dan translated the message to his superior officer. The lad was glad that it was not he who was tugging at the oars, for the perspiration was dripping from the face of the oarsman by this time.
As each boat reached the buoy where it was to locate its mine, the men would toss their oars as a signal that they were ready. Some time was required for all the boats to get in their proper places.
In the meantime Dan Davis was standing up in the wherry with his flag ready for signaling. At last the oars in each boat of the fleet were tossed, which means held upright.
”Ready,” wig-wagged the Battles.h.i.+p Boy.
He held his flag high above his head with one hand-the injured one-the other hand holding the spy gla.s.s to his eye watching the signal halyards of the battles.h.i.+p.
A flag fluttered to the breeze on the s.h.i.+p. Instantly Dan dipped his own signal flag.
A splash from a cutter, followed by a series of splashes from the other boats of the little fleet, told him that the mines were going overboard.
The second leg of the contest against time was on. Sam Hickey sat in the whaleboat irritated because he had had little or nothing to do. Had he but known it, however, there was plenty of opportunity ahead of him to enable the lad to show the stuff he was made of.