Boy Allies with Uncle Sam's Cruisers Read online

  Produced by Sean Pobuda

  THE BOY ALLIES WITH UNCLE SAM'S CRUISERS

  By Ensign Robert L. Drake

  CHAPTER I

  JACK'S ADVENTURE

  Frank Chadwick jumped from a chair in the front window and ran towardthe door. A form had swung from the sidewalk along the drive thatmarked the entrance to Lord Hasting's London home and at sight of itFrank had uttered an exclamation. Now, as the figure climbed thesteps, Frank flung open the door.

  "Jack!" he exclaimed with outstretched hand. "I feared something hadhappened, you have been gone so long and we had heard nothing of you."

  "I'm perfectly whole," laughed Jack, grasping his friend's hand. "Why,I've been gone less than two weeks."

  "But you expected to be gone only a day or two."

  "That's true, but a fellow can't tell what is going to happen, youknow. I wasn't sure I should find you here when I returned, though."

  "You probably wouldn't had you come a day later," returned Frank.

  "How's that?"

  "We sail tomorrow night," said Frank.

  "By George! Then I'm back just in time," declared Jack. "Where boundthis time?"

  "I don't know exactly, but personally I believe to America."

  "Why?"

  "The United States, I understand, is about to declare war on Germany. Ihave heard it said that immediately thereafter American troops will besent to Europe."

  "What's that got to do with our voyage?"

  "I'm coming to that. There will be need, of convoys for the Americantransports. I believe that is the work in which we will be engaged."

  "That will be first rate, for a change," said Jack.

  "But come," said Frank, leading the way into the house. "Where haveyou been? Tell me about yourself."

  "Wait, until I get a breath," laughed Jack, making himself comfortablein a big armchair. "By the way, where is Lord Hastings?"

  "He is in conference with the admiralty."

  "And Lady Hastings?"

  "Shopping, I believe. However, both will be back before long. Nowlet's have an account of your adventures."

  "Well, they didn't amount to much," said Jack.

  "Where've you been?"

  "Pretty close to Heligoland."

  "What! Again?"

  "Exactly. You remember how Lord Hastings came to us one day and saidthat the admiralty had need of a single officer at that moment, andthat we both volunteered?"

  "I certainly do," declared Frank, "and we drew straws to see which ofus should go. I lost."

  "Exactly. Well, when I reached the admiralty I found there a certainCaptain Ames. I made myself known and was straightway informed that Iwould do as well as another. Captain Ames was in command of theBritish destroyer Falcon. He was bound on active duty at once, and hetook me along as second in command."

  "Where was he bound?" demanded Frank. "And what was the nature of thework?"

  "The nature of the work," said Jack, "was to search out German minesahead of the battleships, who were to attempt a raid of Heligoland."

  "Great Scott!" exclaimed Frank. "I hadn't heard anything about that.Was the raid a success?"

  "It was not," replied Jack briefly.

  "Explain," said Frank.

  "I'm trying to," smiled Jack. "Give me a chance, will you?"

  He became silent and mused for a few moments. Then he saidmeditatively:

  "The destroyer service might well be called the cavalry of the sea. Itcalls for dashing initiative, aggressiveness and courage and daring tothe point of rashness. Where an officer would be justified--even dutybound--by navy standards to run away with a bigger and more valuablevessel, the commander of a destroyer often must close in to almostcertain annihilation."

  "Hm-m-m," said Frank slyly. "You are not feeling a bit proud ofyourself, are you?"

  "Oh, I'm not talking about myself," said Jack quietly. "I was thinkingof a man like Captain Ames--and other men of his caliber. However,I've been pretty close to death myself, and having come as close to afellow as death did to me, I believe he'll become discouraged andquit. Yes, sir, I don't believe I shall ever die afloat."

  "Don't be too cock-sure," said Frank dryly. "However, proceed."

  "Well," Jack continued, "I followed Captain Ames aboard the Falcon andwe put to sea immediately. It was the following night that we foundourselves mixed up in the German mine fields and so close to thefortress itself that we were in range of the land batteries as well asthe big guns of the German fleet. Our main fleet came far behind us,for the big ships, of course, would not venture in until we had madesure of the position of the mines."

  "Right," said Frank. "I can see that--"

  "Look here," said Jack, "who's telling this story?"

  "You are," said Frank hastily. "Go ahead."

  "All right, but don't interrupt me. As I said, we'd been searchingmines for the battleships. Better to lose a dozen or two of us littlefellows than one of the dreadnoughts, so we steamed ahead like a fanwith nets spread and a sharp lookout. We lost a few craft by bumpingmines, but we destroyed a lot of the deadly things by firing into thefields and detonating them.

  "We could generally tell when we were getting close to a field, whichat this point was protected by the land batteries, for the batterieswould redouble their fire. Might better have saved their powder andlet us run into the fields and be blown to bits, you will say. Not atall. They would consider that a waste of good mines. Nobody wants towaste a whole mine on a poor little torpedo boat destroyer--andtwenty to forty men. There's no profit in that.

  "We were sneaking along slowly, feeling our way and sitting on theslippery edge of eternity when the batteries opened up.

  "'We're getting warmer,' said Ames.

  "It was close range work and we were able to reply to the fire of theland batteries with our little 3-inch beauties, although I don'tsuppose we did much good. It makes a fellow feel better, however, asyou know, if he's barking back. It's funny how most men have a dreadof dying without letting the other fellow know why he's there. Itdoesn't seem so bad when you're hammering him.

  "Anyway, it was part of our business.

  "There was a bunch of red buoys anchored along one side where our chartshowed the channel to be, and we supposed that they had been used bythe German destroyers as channel buoys or to mark mine fields.

  "It developed that the Germans had anchored those buoys and got therange of them so they could have their guns already set for anythingthat came near them. Some of our boats were hit by the first fire. Itwas a desperate spot.

  "We were up near the lead and we had to run fairly well in advance ofthe main body. As you know, it often happens that when a vessel issteaming head-on very fast, it is difficult to hit her. It seems torattle the gunners the same as charging infantry does the defenders.

  "Shell after shell missed, but there were so many of them fallingaround us that we were almost smothered in the spray. We had all beenunder fire before, so it didn't have much effect on us, though.

  "Then a shell hit us amidships and tore out one of our boilers. I wason the bridge with Captain Ames at the time.

  "'Go below and report,' said Ames, just as calmly as though we were atmaneuvers and one of our piston rods was pounding a little.

  "I went down into a cloud of steam and found two men, pretty wellscalded, dragging out the others who had been more badly hurt by theexplosion. There wasn't enough of the water tight compartment left toshut it off from the rest of the vessel, but we still had one boilerintact.

  "I directed the men to carry the wounded above and started back for thebridge. Just as my feet were on the bottom of the ladder there was
another crash. The body of a man who had just reached the deck cametoppling down in a shower of splinters and debris.

  "Well, I got back on to my feet and made the deck. A shell hadexploded right atop of us and nearly swept us clean. The bridge wasalmost carried away. Captain Ames lay under a light steel beam and Ithought he was dead. I ran over to him. As I approached he shook offthe beam and got up. One of his legs gave way and he had to hold on toa stanchion for support.

  "'Cut off my trouser leg!' he shouted, very much excited.

  "I ripped out my knife and did as he ordered. Then he twisted thecloth around his leg above an ugly gash and tied it.

  "'What's gone below?' he demanded. 'One boiler,' I replied.

  "'Might have been both,' grunted Ames, and added, 'Well, we're not outof this fight yet."'

  Jack paused a moment.

  "A brave man!" cried Frank. "Go ahead, Jack."

  Jack cleared his throat and proceeded.