and Ken darted up the steel ladder like a
lamplighter.

Outside, he found the sun gone, the sky covered with clouds, and a threat
of rain in the cool air. But it was not the weather he thought of. His
eyes were at once fixed upon a large steamer about two miles off to the
southward. Clouds of sooty smoke were pouring from her funnels, and a
yeasty wake trailed away behind her. Taking warning by the fate of her
escort, she was doing all she knew to escape.

'Will she beat us? Will she get away?' Ken asked anxiously of one of the
gun crew.

'Will she spread her little wings an' turn into a waterplane?' replied the
man with a grin. 'Bless you, soldier, she couldn't do more'n fourteen
knots when she come out o' the builder's yard, and that's two more'n she's
going now. You watch an' see how far she gets away.'

A very few moments' watching was enough to convince Ken that G2 was
overhauling her prey hand over fist. Within less than a quarter of an hour
a mile of the steamer's lead had gone. Another five minutes and the
distance between the two was barely twelve hundred yards.

'Hallo, they're getting gay!' remarked the big bluejacket, as rifles began
to spit and bullets to throw up little jets of spray around the rushing
submarine.

Presently one clanged against the conning tower itself. Commander Strang
gave an order, and a little row of bunting ran up on the tiny mast of the
submarine.

'"Heave to, or I'll sink you," that means,' observed Ken's friend.

The only response was a thicker hail of bullets. But the low deck of G2,
flying onwards as she was at about twenty-two land miles an hour, made a
poor target, and the Turks failed to do any damage beyond knocking a
little paint off.

'Confound 'em!' growled Strang. 'They haven't got sense enough to come in
out of the rain. Give 'em a shell, Watson.'

The long gray 12-pounder was ready. Her vicious-looking muzzle swung
round. There was a ringing bang, and the shell, small but charged with
deadly lyddite, spun away on its errand.

[Illustration: 'A black-browed officer came to the rail.']

Ken, watching eagerly, saw a bright flash light the side of the steamer,
close under her stern, and as a cloud of smoke floated up, the crash of
the explosion came back to his ears.

The big steamer staggered and yawed right out of her course.

'Capital!' said Strang with strong approval. 'That's hashed her steering.
Signal 'em to heave to, or the next will be in their eng