The Boy Scouts for Uncle Sam Part 29

"Well, we are by no means out of the woods yet," responded the ensign drily.

He led the way to the forward torpedo room. This was right in the bow of the boat and most of the s.p.a.ce was occupied by odd-looking machinery.

Wheels, worm gears and strange-looking levers were everywhere. At the farthest end of the steel-walled chamber was a sort of derrick contrivance. This was the piece of machinery used to raise the torpedoes and swing them into the tubes.

Like the other machinery on the _Peacemaker_, the derrick was operated by electricity. A pull of a lever and Mr. Barr had set its machinery in motion. The torpedoes were placed on racks so that it was a simple matter to secure them to the lifting chain of the derrick. First one and then another of the polished steel implements of deadly warfare were raised to the mouths of the torpedo tubes which projected into the chamber.

Despite their immense weight, the torpedoes were placed within the tubes with no more difficulty than a sportsman experiences in shoving two cartridges into the breech of his gun.

In ten minutes from the time the party entered the torpedo chamber, the steel implements of death had been "rammed home" and the breech of the tubes clamped and fastened. On the _Peacemaker_ type of submarine compressed air at an enormous pressure was used to give the torpedoes a start, although, of course, they contained the usual machinery within themselves to drive them through the water after they left the tubes.

There followed a moment of suspense as the compressed air, with a hissing sound, rushed into the tubes.

Mr. Barr, deadly pale but without a tremor in his voice, announced that all was ready.

The ensign merely nodded and began to operate a worm gear which swung the tubes at an acuter angle to the body of the submarine vessel.

"I think we are all right now," he said presently.

"Very well," spoke the inventor, his hand on a lever, "when you say the word, I'll discharge the torpedoes."

"You might as well do it right now," was the response.

The inventor, with hands that shook, swung the lever back.

There was a hissing sound and a slight tremor as the compressed air shot the torpedoes from the tubes. Less than a second later, simultaneously it seemed, the submarine was rocked and swayed by a terrific convulsion.

The boys and their elders were thrown right and left with a force that almost knocked them senseless.

It was but a few moments after the explosion of the two torpedoes that Ensign Hargreaves uttered a shout that thrilled them all.

"We're rising!" he cried. "My plan succeeded after all!"

"I think that we ought to give thanks to Providence," said Mr. Barr reverently. "As the ensign has said, the plan succeeded, but it was taking one chance in a thousand. Had that cliff not been shaken so as to release us, we might have perished miserably and left our fate a mystery."

The boys were in the conning tower by the conclusion of Mr. Barr's words. The barograph showed them to be rising a hundred feet a minute.

No words were exchanged between the two young Scouts, but each grasped the other's hand in a firm grip and gazed into the other's eyes. There was no necessity of speech. Both realized that they had pa.s.sed through the gravest peril that even they had experienced in all their adventurous lives.

When the _Peacemaker_ reached the surface once more, the storm had subsided. With their hearts full of deep grat.i.tude for the miraculous chance that had saved their lives, her occupants headed the speedy diving craft back for the island at top speed. The _Peacemaker_ had been through the supreme test and had not been found lacking.

"I tell you what, Barr," declared Ensign Hargreaves, as they neared the familiar island, "you have the most wonderful boat on earth, and Uncle Sam has _got_ to have it. My report goes in to Was.h.i.+ngton to-morrow and you can guess what it will contain."

"Thank you," said the inventor simply, extending his hand.

CHAPTER XXIX.

INTO THE JAWS OF DEATH.

"That's queer, Rob!"

"What's queer, Merritt, the way you've been sitting and staring for the last ten minutes?"

"No; that odd noise. Don't you hear it?"

The two lads were seated in the cabin of the submarine on "night guard duty," as it was called. Following the anxious days when Berghoff had made affairs on the island so filled with uneasiness for the Scouts and their friends, this sentry duty had been regularly maintained.

On this particular night the task had fallen to Rob and Merritt. There was nothing very arduous about it, the only duty involved being to keep ears and eyes open. Both lads had been engrossed in books dealing with their favorite subjects when Merritt called Rob's attention to the odd sound he had noticed.

"Maybe my ears are not quite so sharp as yours, old boy," said Rob, after an interval of listening. "I've got a slight cold, anyhow, and perhaps that's why I don't hear so readily."

"Possibly so."

"You are sure you weren't mistaken?"

"Think I'm hearing things?" indignantly responded Merritt. "No, siree, I'm willing to bet. Hark! There it is again!"

"By Hookey! I heard it that time, too. What can it be?"

"Hus.h.!.+"

The noise was a most peculiar one. It seemed to be a sort of sc.r.a.ping on the outside of the submarine's hull. The diving craft was anch.o.r.ed at some distance from the sh.o.r.e, so as to be more readily prepared for a projected run the following day. This made the noise all the more inexplicable, as, had the craft been in the shed, it might have been caused by the inventor or the ensign paying a night visit to see that all was well, which they sometimes did.

"Perhaps it's a log b.u.mping against the side."

"No; it appears to come from under the water."

"That's so," agreed Rob; "tell you what, Merritt, it's up to us to investigate."

"Yes, let's go on deck and see what we can find out."

Together the two lads climbed the steel stairway leading to the conning tower, and presently emerged on the rounded steel back of the diving craft. They stood here for a minute or two, trying to get their eyes used to the sudden change from the bright light of the cabin to the inky darkness of the night. It was overcast and starless, and it was impossible under any condition to see more than a few yards about them.

Suddenly Rob clasped Merritt's arm with a grip that made the other lad wince.

"Look! Look there!" he cried. "Off there. It's gone now. It only showed up for an instant."

"It's your turn to be nervous," rejoined Merritt; "blessed if I saw anything!"

"My eyes must be as sharp as your ears, then. I'd swear I saw a shadowy thing sneak away from us across the water."

"What sort of a thing?"

"A boat. I only saw it an instant, of course; but I'm sure I wasn't mistaken."

"You think that somebody in that boat was monkeying with the _Peacemaker_?"