Show 0 i cis 0 0 TA n DEEP A by VICTOR ROUSSEAU w e copyright by W V G chapman 0 0 PAGET SINKS A GERMAN CRUISER AND IDA KE KENNEDY ENTERS THE naval lieutenant donald paget just given command of a submarine meets at washington an old friend and distinguished though somewhat eccentric scientist captain masterman masterman has just returned from an exploring expedition bringing alth him a member of the strange race the existence of whose species lie he asserts menaces the human family at the club the march hares masterman explains his theory to paget the recital la Is interrupted by the arrival of a lifelong enemy of masterman ira Mac Alac Beard and the former Is seized with a fatal paralytic stroke from Master mans body paget secures documents bearing upon the ilio discovery and proceeds to the home of the scientist paget proceeds to sea on ida hlo submarine the and encounters a german cruiser CHAPTER IV continued 5 at first the hum of the electric motors dominated all other sounds but gradually it became blended with a medley of noises placing his ear a moment against the plating of the hull donald could hear a steady though faint pounding which came not from within but from the bearings of the distant warship transmitted under water somewhere too donald fancied that a destroyer was speeding toward them for there was a faint and almost imperceptible whirring as of high speed machinery mixed with the throb of the screws there came the sound of their suction at times the seas breaking over the periscope obscured his vision sometimes too the cruiser shifted outside her are arc then the periscope motor started anew and slowly she would swing back growing more mor e discernible below the men who understood that an enemy ship was near waited in suppressed excitement well have to try her at IL a mile C clonts clouts outs said donald to the 1001 lookout out ile he carried only three torpedoes lie he would have liked to close in and make sure of his prey but a shot at almost the extreme range seemed preferable to hazarding the vessel and the lives of his crew aye sir I 1 answered sam clouts clonts clouts clonts was a man of about forty years hook nosed with bland humorous blue eyes and a square jaw jav under a square bristling beard when off duty he was perpetually playing a mouth organ and donald could not help smiling to see his hand band stealing covetously toward his bis pocket eyen even I 1 now the german could hardly have been more than a mile away when slie she suddenly changed her course to westward donald had been approaching her head on with the object of maneuvering when within striking distance to send a torpedo amidships the new course of the vessel was a bitter disappointment to him donald realized that nearing the Shet lands and endeavoring to make the pas passage sage between mainland and that wa was s the most hazardous part of her jo runey once beyond the straits she would be tree free 0 in the open atlantic he gave the order to rise the tanks were blown the rudders and diving planes adjusted the began to mount upward A green translucency appeared the electric ilg lights his went out the hatches were opened A gust of fresh air drove drone the stale atmosphere away the petrol motors took up the task of the electr electric Le ones donald ordered full fall speed the vessel drove high through the w waves aves achieving 12 knots A shadow edged the misty horizon it was sumburgh Sum burgh head the extreme southerly point of the Shet lands here the cruiser was due to turn smoke to port sir said clouts clonts the G german erman had evidently seen it at the same time for her speed began to diminish this meant that she was steering cautiously to gain the shelter of sumburgh Sum burgh behind which she might lie unobserved for observation if it was an english battle cruiser that was approaching the ship would be hard put to it to escape it waa not likely that the oncoming ship had sighted her smoke through the increasing haze donald drove hard for the main channel he knew that he could catch the german now and he was ready to take chances of discovery meanwhile inch by inch the pt granger ranger came upa 1111 out of the sea at first donald believed she was a british battle cruiser this hope was soon dispelled however when her funnels showed three black stacks ringed with white the color of the claude une line and the heavy hull built for freight not speed his heart began to thump heavily for the beohla was one of the claude lines ships and the approaching vessel lookers very much like the overdue beohla and ida was aboard her and already well within range of the cuemy W y tj guns 1 the two ships had sighted baci t other donald saw the beohla diminish to a thread line as she jhb turned and ran prow on toward the Orkney Ork st A art spurt of fame broke from the ger mans bow A coil of cloud followed it A few seconds later the boom of the discharge echoed across the water and a pillar of spray shot up near the how bow the battleship turned toward her prey and donalds chance had come the beohla had no intention of surrendering the german following her perceived the lurking danger and at once his guns were trained on the submarine the dipped at the bow A shell hooted over her and a second falling shorter sli orter deluged the submersible with water but the was stern down and sinking her periscope shot through the waves the only target and in the conning tower donald sat with his eyes fast on the mirror ten feet below the surface the plunged on toward the monarch of the sea the sound of the guns was vastly louder under the waves A single shot sent home would smash through the thin plates as if they were of paper but donald 1 knew new that it was the supreme moment when danger must be ignored yle tie seemed to sense the ship the crew ds as a single entity devoted to a single purpose ile he aimed his bow directly into his port flank se was less than a mile away at that distance it seemed a miracle that lier her shells failed to strike home down in the torpedo room three men bore a torpedo from the rack and placed it in the slings they swung it forward into the breech of the tube one man nt at the pump rapidly filled the breech chamber with the compressed air that was to send the missile upon its course donald in the conning tower still held the cruiser within the mirror ile he saw the smoke coll coil from her guus guns lie heard their dull reverberation and d knew that at any moment the blinded might be sent staggering to her death through the wake of her wash but he was animated by the in purpose which inspired all and made the steel and human mechanism a bolt forged for death clouts clonts at the wheel did not allow t the he little craft to deviate a hairs breadth from her course stand by ill 1 the hiss of the oxygen apparatus dominated all other sounds at her 45 knot speed the missile left the launching tube with a heavy thud and the ship quivered as she shook herself free and ddnald do bald knew that his shot had gone gon e home the less but all listened u until the end of the mile long journey on board the enemy ship everyone could see the air bubbles that came up from the speeding missile and its white foaming wake there was no time to maneuver the giant ship they prayed they could do no more that the torpedo might not have been shot true that it might deviate from its imminent path it came on inexorably the firing became wilder the gunners absorbed as they were in their task seemed permeated with the contagious terror caused by that white rippling pencil line that was extending toward their ship the missile struck the battle cruiser amidships blowing out a section of ler her hulla hull a single watertight water tight compartment the cruiser hardly staggered itjin the blow the torpedo had struck glancing and missed the full force of its delivery the wound was in itself too small to sink or even badly cripple the great ship a triumph of shipbuilding and calculated to withstand jut just such an impact unfortunately unfortunates y for her the maximum of the shock chock was was received beneath the powder room adjacent to the ammunition chamber whose doors were open at that moment for the removal of the 12 inch shells by the ammunition halt the shock was followed by an infinite suspense perhaps it lasted for two seconds the cruiser drove through the waves like some sea monster idt that had received a deadly thrust unscathed then with a detonation that was heard from sumburgh Sum burgh to sutherland she went sky high in tumbling ambling ruin donald within the conning tower saw a blur frost tho the mirror of the peri parl scope cop another second passed then the went reeling under the terrific force of the explosion she spun round under the waveland waves wave sand and thrilled as if she herself faced disruption the bilge pumps cleared her diving tanks slie she rose nose upward scenting the air her stern followed and she lay awash in the water once more the hatches were removed not a vestige of the cruiser was to be seen she had sunk in less than three minutes but hard by not three quarters of a mile to port a pillar of smoke lit up by flame curled out of the hatches deeming her the submarines decoy the cruisers gunners had ald riddled her with shells from the two 12 inch guns at the bow she seemed to stagger through tho the smoke that wreathed her she was lying dying by fire and water too and the twin elements in their eternal conflict reeked nothing of her human freight and ida was there ida doomed to perish if she were not already dead unless help speedily came I 1 donald took the helm the rushed through the waves in the direction of the claude liner which listed hard to starboard two boats had already been launched and bobbed ridiculously beside her others remained inn ined high up in the air impotent because the list prevented their being lowered and dashed themselves to pieces against the hull as they swung aiom rom the shattered davits As the drew near the ocean to open S silently softly the convexity of the hull slipped down and was vas lost to view as the suns edge edga goes goe s into the horizon A swirl and e eddy in the sea and nothing remained except the two boats and some tiny doll like figures that bobbed in the water A ga gasp sp of horror went up from the throats of the seamen clustered upon the deek deck of the as the swirl sucked down the boat that was thet tha nearer to the maelstrom of the wreck iett S there was a woman aboard and a man pulling wildly at one oar it t sucked down with all its living freight and spewed skewed it forth into the air again end on ein empty lity the engines stopped the submarine glided gilded in the single boat seemed empty nol no there was a woman aboard and a man pulling wildly upon one oar donald took in the situation instantly he turned to his aid davies a little keen faced middy who was making ills his first voyage in command of men tow us or run for fair is island landl I 1 he cried then hinging flinging off his coat he leaped A few strokes carried him to tale the whirling boat and now he realized that lie he had known all along that the girl in it was ida miraculously saved out of the great company of those who had died his heart beat a of joy at the sight of her his love awakened and he knew that this was no transient passion but an enduring one but just as he reached the lie boat he saw the sailor at the oar stagger blindly toward the edge it seemed as it if lil he were being dragged overboard against his will I 1 ile he whirled his arms and plunged into the deep with a hoarse cry that rang out far above the waters paget attempting to rescue his sweetheart encounters a horde of noisome crea creatures turea and finds himself ln in der desperate plight L TO BE CONTINUED |