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Dave Darrin After The Mine Layers, a novel by H. Irving Hancock |
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Chapter 10. Like The French And English |
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_ CHAPTER X. LIKE THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH Captain Kennor is polite. A look-in at the periscope. "Yankee meat." Dave is tricky. Shots and a threatened ramming. "You idiot!" Dave plays for his own finish.
"You cannot expect that the people of the Fatherland will feel any great kindness toward you," pursued the ober-lieutenant. "Why should they dislike me?" "Because you brought about the death of von Bechtold, and he was an officer most valuable to our government." "If you caught an American spy in Germany would you arrest him?" "Assuredly," admitted the German officer. "And do your best to prove your charge against him and have him executed." "Again, assuredly." "That was what I did, in the case of von Bechtold." "Bah, you are like the French and English!" snapped the ober-lieutenant. "You can never get it through your heads that a German is more important than one of your kinds of people." "No," Dave agreed, "I am afraid that we cannot appreciate that fact, or even admit it to be a fact." "And now, before you leave me," broke in the German officer, quickly, "tell me the name of your destroyer and the station on which you last served." Dave smiled, but did not answer in words. The ober-lieutenant regarded him frowningly. "Oh, very good," said the German, at last. "There are those in Germany who know how and possess the means to make you talk. Your record shall be completed there. And now--!" Going to the wardroom door the ober-lieutenant called: "Lieutenant von Schellen!" The same younger officer came to the door. "Be good enough to show Lieutenant Commander Darrin to his quarters and extend to him any courtesies that you properly may. It is not fitting that a man of his rank should have to receive orders from a seaman." "This way," directed von Schellen, briefly. He led the way down the narrow passage to a curtained doorway. "In here you will find your home until we reach Germany," said von Schellen. "If you wish exercise you may leave your sleeping cabin and walk back and forth in this passage-way. If the ober-lieutenant should decide to be gracious enough to invite you to the wardroom, then you will also have the freedom of that room--at meal hours only. You will not go to any other part of this craft." With a curt nod the young lieutenant left Dave. Perhaps von Schellen had done his best to be courteous. Pulling back the curtain Dave looked in. It was a stuffy little place, just long enough to hold two berths, one above the other, against the outer shell of the submarine. In the upper berth Captain Kennor lay at full length, a hand over his eyes. "We are cabin-mates, then?" Dave asked, gently. "Yes, so I been told," the Dane answered gloomily. "And you in the upper berth? Why did you not take the lower one? It is more comfortable." "I vould no so presume!" protested the Dane. "Not wid a man of your rank." "I haven't rank enough in our naval service to feel conceited about it," Darry smiled, "and you are considerably older than I. Any difference there may be in comfort is your due. Will you kindly exchange?" Not without some difficulty did Dave succeed in inducing Captain Kennor to change to the lower, broader berth of the two. Dave, after removing his boots and some of his clothing, climbed to the upper berth, spreading a blanket over himself and lying down, for he felt that rest was absolutely needed. At the noon-meal hour the ober-lieutenant sent an orderly to invite Darrin to the table, though the same invitation was not to be extended to Captain Kennor, who would be expected to eat with the German petty officers. But, as Dave and Captain Kennor were asleep at the time, the orderly departed without waking them. It was past the middle of the afternoon when Dave Darrin at last awoke sufficiently to decide upon rising. Getting to the floor, and noting that Captain Kennor was still asleep, Dave dressed almost by stealth. While he was still so engaged there came a slight knock at the door. A German petty officer looked in. "The ober-lieutenant sends his compliments," announced the fellow, in English. "He will be pleased to have you join him. I will lead the way." Dave followed, down the passage and out into the main cabin. There, at a table under the conning tower, sat the ober-lieutenant and the same younger officer. "We will raise the periscope and show you what we are about to do," said the ober-lieutenant, with a half-malicious smile. Von Schellen, his hand on the wheel of the periscope mechanism, awaited a nod from his chief. Receiving it, the younger officer turned the wheel, sending the periscope up a foot above water. On the white surface of the shaded table beneath Dave saw the image of a vessel. "The fellow yonder has not yet sighted us," said the ober-lieutenant, grimly. "We are about to send him a torpedo. Yonder craft is to be our game--Yankee steel and Yankee meat!" As for Dave, as he stared in horror at the image on the table he recognized in the ship mirrored there Dan Dalzell's own command, the "Reed." Forcing himself to speak calmly, and to act a part Dave begged: "One moment longer, please! Let me see whether I can recognize the doomed craft." "Doomed, indeed," chuckled the ober-lieutenant. "We are in position and I am about to fire. Be ready to drop the 'scope, von Schellen!" But Dave Darrin, knocking von Schellen's hand away, seized the lever, forcing the periscope to rise to its full height above the conning tower. Nor did he stop there. With the mightiest twist and wrench of which he was capable he jammed the lever so that it could not be promptly operated to lower the periscope. "Stop!" thundered von Schellen, leaping to his feet, his face purple with rage. "I've stopped," assented Darry, smilingly, as he stepped back. "Do you realize what you have done, scoundrelly Yankee?" hissed the ober-lieutenant, also rising and drawing his revolver. "Of course I do," Dave smilingly assented. "You have jammed the periscope. But at least we can dive when we need, for--there!" With deft manipulation of a small device the German commander added: "I have closed the valves of the 'scope, which will now admit no water if we dive. You did not succeed, Herr Darrin. But you will draw upon us the Yankee fire if yonder commander is now able to sight our scope." As if to verify the statement a muffled sound came to them through the water. Glancing down swiftly at the table von Schellen saw that reflected which caused him to exclaim: "The Yankee destroyer has opened upon us with her forward port gun. And there goes the starboard gun!" Von Schellen, at a nod from his chief, signalled the orders for diving. The ober-lieutenant saw the "Reed," as pictured on the white table, come steaming toward the submarine at full speed. "You idiot!" raged the German commander. "Your treachery has betrayed us, and now the Yankee will do his best to sink us and drown all on board here." "That's what I'm praying right now he'll do!" cried Dave Darrin, his face radiant with the glory of the thought. _ |
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