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Page 44
The Colonel smiled as he guessed the eagerness with which they
hoped for a sight of a submarine. Not a man of them there wanted
to drown, but he wanted to see a sub, and with the hopefulness of
his character he felt that the chances were good for getting away
before any damage was done.
Still thinking of the boys he had loved so well, he leaned once
more over the rail, his sad blue eyes searching the sea. Waves
and sky; waves and sky; a gull in the distance but nothing else.
For an hour he stood there thinking, forgetful of his promise to
go below, staring about, searching the vastness for a sign of the
danger that lurked everywhere, the terrible U-boats; but he
looked and saw nothing. Another night passed but as the day
dawned, a sudden warning call sounded through the ship, and
peering through his porthole, the Colonel saw the long, slim
shape of a torpedo whizzing toward the great ship. It was badly
aimed and as it passed harmlessly on, a thunder of guns shattered
the peace of the morning. The Colonel rushed on deck. As he did
so, he saw the turret of a U-boat between the transport and her
nearest convoy sink out of sight. Again the guns spoke as the
boat went down. The periscope of the sub wavered and leaned far
out of true. Another torpedo cut the water and struck the
transport a glancing blow, doing but little damage. The two
convoys were now busy with another U-boat that had attacked them.
One of the convoys, a destroyer of the latest and finest type,
threw a smoke screen between the U-boat and the transport, but
the U-boat, evidently under orders to get the transport with its
crowds of men at any cost, came to the surface in the midst of
the smoke and, using the screen to her own advantage, slipped
close to the transport. As she did so there was another clamor
of guns from both the convoys. The Colonel could not see the
result of the firing. The guns on the transport were aimed at
the nearest U-boat which had come so, close to her intended
victim. She lay on the surface, and one torpedo and then another
shot from her firing tubes. The fire from the transport missed
her again.
The torpedoes seemed possessed. Instead of holding the straight
line that would have doomed the great ship to certain destruction,
they skipped here and there. One of them turned and narrowly
missed the U-boat which was now apparently making an effort to
submerge. So strangely did the boat act that the gunner hesitated
as he was about to give the order to fire.
No other torpedo was sent out, and the submarine kept to the
surface, swinging slowly.
"She must be badly crippled," said the Captain to Colonel Bright,
who stood beside him on the bridge. He gave the order to an
officer to open fire on the boat.
As the men leaped to their guns, a strange thing happened. The
hatch on the submarine opened, and a man leaped out to the deck.
He waved a white flag.
"No good!" said the Captain. "That's been done before. I won't
risk one of my boat crews over there."
"You can't shoot at a flag of truce," said the Colonel hastily.
"You have to in warfare like this," said the Captain bitterly.
The figure on the U-boat, looking very small in the distance,
continued to wave his flag. The Captain nodded to the commander
of the gun crew on the nearest turret. The gun leaped into
position. At that instant the figure on the reeling submarine
whipped a small flag from his pocket and flourished it beside the
other. The officers and men on board the transport gasped.
It was an American flag!
Yes, there on a German submarine a solitary figure was waving
aloft the Stars and Stripes.
The Captain uttered an exclamation of amazement, and shook his
head at the gun crew. Almost at once a couple of motor-boats,
filled with armed men, shot from the transport and raced over the
rough sea to the rolling sub.
"We will soon know what all this is about," said Captain Greene.
"Come down while I prepare a wireless."
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