Dave Darrin and the German Submarines Part 22

Now the "Logan's" guns were at it again, with a barking din that made conversation difficult.

By this time only one hydroairplane remained with the head of the fleet, which was believed to have pa.s.sed through the submarine ambush. The others and a decided majority of the destroyers were now maneuvering anywhere from the middle to the rear end of the transports.

Finally the fight centered on the tail end of the transport fleet. Here the submarines were doing their best to "get" a transport.

Another hour, and the fleet believed itself to be clear of that submarine concentration. Not that vigilance was relaxed, however. No troops.h.i.+p had been struck to-day, but the fine work might be easily undone by carelessness on the part of either hydroairplane or destroyer commanders.

Two hours after the attack began Darrin received signalled orders to return to his former position in the escort line.

"Thus endeth the second chapter-apparently," commented Danny Grin.

During this engagement, as on the day before, the soldiers who crowded the destroyer had been ordered from the decks during the fight. They were now notified that they might come out.

It was one o'clock in the afternoon when the leading hydroairplane signalled a report that the sea ahead was strewn with wreckage. s.h.i.+p after s.h.i.+p sailed through this mute evidence of the enemy's presence and detestable work. Spars with clinging cordage floated by. Wooden hatchcovers, overturned boats, oars, chairs, wooden boxes, bales of soaked cotton and what-not were in the litter that strewed the sea over a broad area.

One of the overturned lifeboats was overhauled. The name on her stern showed that she belonged to a nine-thousand-ton freighter, carrying a naval gun crew and fore and after guns.

"The loss of the s.h.i.+p is bad enough," said Dave, soberly, "but there is nothing to indicate how many lives were lost."

An hour later, however, three boats, containing some forty men, women and children, were overhauled. The freighter had carried pa.s.sengers.

When the lifeboats had been overhauled, and the occupants taken off by the destroyer "John Adams," the s.h.i.+vering wretches had a sad tale to tell. It was at that moment believed, and afterwards confirmed, that some sixty persons had lost their lives.

"Even after we pulled away in the small boats," sobbed an American woman, "the brutes sh.e.l.led us."

"A cook in our boat was. .h.i.t," a man took up the narrative. "The sh.e.l.l struck him at the waist, hurling his head and trunk overboard and leaving his legs in the boat. And a child's head was shot from its shoulders. You noticed the splashes of blood in our boat? I'm fifty-nine years old, but if any recruiting officer in four armies will accept me I'm ready to enlist and fight these beasts-navy or army!"

"And I'm going to enlist!" quivered a young boatswain's mate. "I can't get into the trenches soon enough. I won't take any German prisoners at the front, either," he added, significantly.

Late in the afternoon, not many miles from the submarine base, French and American destroyers waited to escort the transport fleet the rest of the way to France. At about that same hour the evening papers in Berlin declared that an American transport fleet had been encountered, and that nine of the s.h.i.+ps, containing more than twenty thousand American soldiers, had been sent to the bottom. The truth was that one transport had been sunk and eleven Americans killed and wounded!

Many of the destroyers that had brought in the transport fleet to the point where the new escort awaited it, now turned seaward once more.

Dave Darrin and the "Logan," however, were under orders to go to the base port, for the trial of Ober-Lieutenant von Bechtold was close at hand.

When Dave and Dan went ash.o.r.e they took with them Seaman Jordan under close guard.

After slipping that note to Seaman Reardon and then receiving no further results from it, Jordan had suddenly suspected the ruse that was likely to put his neck in a noose. So now, as he went ash.o.r.e, that young seaman was gloomy and pallid.

Hardly had Darrin stepped on the wharf when a waiting jackie saluted smartly.

"Why, hullo, Runkle!" cried Dave, halting, for this sailorman had been of great a.s.sistance to him in former undertakings.

"I'm glad to see you, sir," exclaimed Runkle, who bore the device of a boatswain's mate. "I thought you were in these waters, sir."

"And I wish I had you on my s.h.i.+p, Runkle," Dave went on, earnestly.

"Begging your pardon, sir, I see that you have Hartmann a prisoner."

"Who?"

"Hartmann."

"Do you mean the sailor under guard?"

"Yes, sir."

"You call him Hartmann?"

"Yes, sir-Gus Hartmann-old Jake Hartmann's son. I ought to know him. We hail from the same home town."

"Speak to him," murmured Dave, then turned to the prisoner with:

"Jordan, here's a boatswain's mate who says your name is Hartmann."

"It must be so, sir, if he says so," returned Jordan, sulkily.

"Then you admit your name to be Hartmann?"

"No, sir; but I can see that I am not to get any show whatever, so I may as well give up hope."

"Runkle," said Dave, after signalling to the guard to take the prisoner on, "I shall have to arrange for you to be on hand. That young man will undoubtedly be tried for treason. He enlisted under an American name, and your testimony that his real name is Hartmann will be valuable for the prosecution."

"If young Hartmann is guilty of treason," Runkle burst out hotly, "I would be glad enough to have the job of drowning him myself."

"Is Jordan, or Hartmann, a citizen of the United States?"

"He was born in America, I understand, sir, but his father was born in Germany, and, so I was told, never took out naturalization papers."

When the accused sailor had been locked up, and three secret service men came on board, Dave Darrin aided them in searching for more of the bottles that glowed when dropped in water.

Jordan, or Hartmann, had been employed at times under the s.h.i.+p's painter. In the paint storeroom the secret service men, after some search, found a board in the floor, back of some boxes, that could be pried up, moving on a hinge. In a hiding place underneath were four bottles identical with the bottle which Darrin had recovered from the water.

Reporting to American Base Headquarters, Dave was much astonished to find orders there relieving him from command of the "Logan."

"I didn't know my work had been as bad as that," Darrin smiled.

"Not bad work at all," replied the staff officer who had handed him the order. "In the first place, you'll be here to attend the court-martial of Ober-Lieutenant von Bechtold. Then there's the case of your own seaman, Jordan, or whatever his name may be. You'll have to testify at his court-martial, too. After both trials are over you will be ordered to the new duty to be given you."

"I don't suppose that I am expected to inquire what that new duty is?"

"As yet I cannot tell you about the new duty."

"Who will command the 'Logan,' if I may ask?"

"Curtin. He has just received his step, and is now a lieutenant-commander."

"And I have my step, too!" cried Danny Grin, coming up behind his chum and waving an official looking envelope. "I'm a lieutenant-commander.

Been detached from service on the 'Logan' and must await new orders."