“Will you send them quickly, sir?” begged Eph.
“I’ll have men on board of you by the time that your engines are running,” promised the lieutenant commander.
“Engines?” That word came as a fortunate reminder to the submarine boy. He darted below, almost yanking Williamson from his berth, nearly pulling the machinist into his clothes. By the time that Williamson was really wide awake he found himself standing by the motors forward.
Then young Somers darted onto deck again, just in time to see the boat coming alongside. It brought two more marines, one of them a corporal. There were also two sailors. A cadet midshipman commanded them.
“Mr. Somers,” reported the cadet midshipman, “I am not intended to displace you from the command of this boat. I am here only with definite instructions in case you succeed in overhauling that white sloop.”
“What—” began Eph. Then he paused, with a half-grin. “Really,” he added, “I ought to know better than to quiz you about your instructions from your superior officer.”
“Yes, sir,” assented the midshipman, simply.
Eph turned on the current to the search-light, swinging the ray about the bay. Then, too impatient to sit in the conning tower, the submarine boy took his place by the deck wheel.
“Will your seamen cast loose from the moorings?” Somers asked.
“If there’s anything wrong, good luck to you,” sounded the cool voice of Lieutenant Commander Mayhew, from the gunboat’s rail.
No sooner had the moorings been cast loose from than Eph sounded the slow speed ahead bell. Within sixty seconds the propellers of the “Farnum” were doing a ten-knot stunt, which was soon increased to fourteen.
One of the seamen now stood by to swing the searchlight under Eph’s orders.
By the time that the submarine reached the mouth of the bay the light faintly picked up a spread of white sail, off to the East.
“That’s the knockabout,” cried Eph, excitedly. “Now, see here, keep that ray right across the boat as soon as we get half a mile nearer.”
“It’ll show the boat that you’re chasing ’em, sir,” advised the midshipman.
“I know it,” admitted Eph. “But it will also keep the rascals from dumping my friends overboard without our catching ’em at it.”
“What do you think the men in charge of that boat are, sir—pirates?”