Part 29 (1/2)

”Yes, but with the strictest orders not to use it except to save s.h.i.+p and crew,” was Dan's answer.

Soon after, despite the darkness, the chums were able to make out a steams.h.i.+p ahead, heeled well over to port. And the flashes of a gun were so close to the water as to indicate that a submarine was firing, even before its outlines could be made out.

”The cowardly hounds!” blazed Dave, indignantly. ”They've got that s.h.i.+p sinking, and all they're doing is terrorizing the poor wretches aboard by slow, systematic murder!”

”I'll get them as soon as I have light enough for a gunner's sight,”

muttered Dan Dalzell. Calling a boatswain's mate under the bridge, he directed him to hoist a Norwegian flag at the stern, and to bend and hoist the signal:

”We wish to save crew and pa.s.sengers.”

”And that's the truth, too, though perhaps not all of it,” snorted Dalzell, all of whose fighting blood had been aroused by the cowardly proceeding going on ahead.

In hoisting the Norwegian flag he was wholly within his rights as a naval commander. Under international law a naval commander is ent.i.tled to hoist any neutral or belligerent flag, including even that of the enemy, in order to maneuver into fighting position. But, before he can fire a shot, the commander must hoist the flag that he actually sails under.

In this instance Dan would give the ”Prince” the a.s.sumed character of a neutral merchant s.h.i.+p that desired to play a humane part. No real Norwegian skipper would have been likely to take such a chance, as it would only have invited the destruction of his craft.

Dawn came quickly now. With the first streaks Dan ran up the signal and sailed daringly in. The submarine, which lay ahead, had ceased firing.

The doomed s.h.i.+p took the plunge and vanished, but in three boats and on six rafts a frightened lot of men and women were seeking to get away from Death.

”Lie to and abandon s.h.i.+p!” signalled the German commander, as soon as the presence of the ”Prince” was made out.

But Dan, with the range, took the bull boldly by the horns. Opening ports in a jiffy, and with gun crews at quarters on both starboard and port, he gave the firing order.

”Give 'em 'Chermany over all,' and put it all over them!” commanded Danny Grin savagely.

Three sh.e.l.ls left the starboard battery before the astounded German commander had realized that it was a fighting craft that menaced him.

Two of the sh.e.l.ls flew over, striking the water beyond, but the third crashed through the plates of the conning tower, exploding inside and blowing off part of the top of the tower.

No sooner had the guns been fired than Dalzell changed the course to bring the port battery into play.

”Give 'em 'Chermany over all' all over again!” roared Danny Grin's voice. ”Oh, it's a great game, don'd it?”

A laugh rose from below, but that laugh was drowned by the joint crash of all the guns of the port battery. Another sh.e.l.l entered the submarine's tower, and two struck the hull, inflicting more deadly damage.

And now a machine gun began to play over the hull of the sea monster, sending such a storm of bullets that one had to admire the courage-or was it despair?-of a German officer who dared the leaden tempest and sprang from the tower with a white flag, signalling surrender.

”Cease firing!” roared Dalzell through a megaphone. ”But load and stand by ready for some German brand of treachery.”

Undoubtedly the German officer knew that he stood under the muzzles of loaded guns. His face white and set, he signalled his offer to surrender.

”We'll accept you as prisoners if you act honestly,” was signalled back by Dan's order. ”But we'll blow you into the air if you try to play a single trick on us.”

Acting under further orders a collapsible boat was put over the side of the submarine. The captain, the second-in-command and the engineer officer came over to the ”Prince” on the first trip, two men returning with the boat to bring other prisoners. In the meantime the rafts and boats from the sunken s.h.i.+p were turning back to the rescuer.

Barely more than half of the Germans had been gotten clear of the submarine when that unlucky craft foundered. Two survivors were picked up from the sea, but the rest went down into the great salt-water grave.

”Periscope on the port quarter!” rang a lookout's hail.