bow
came exclamations of dismay. "Are we torpedoed?"

"I fancy not," answered Blake. "Sounded more like one of the destroyers
made a hit herself. I think they set off a depth charge against a
submarine. We'll soon know! Look at the lights now!"

The sea was agleam with brilliant radiance.

CHAPTER XII

IN ENGLAND

From the bridge came commands to the lookouts stationed in various parts
of the French steamer. Orders flashed to the engine room, and the vessel
lost way and floated under her momentum. As yet she was shrouded in
darkness, the only lights glowing being those actually required to
enable persons to see their way about. Below, of course, as long as the
incandescents were shaded, they could be turned on, and many passengers,
awakened by the concussion and the following sounds, illuminated their
staterooms.

The lights that gleamed across the billows came from the convoying
destroyers, and signals flashed from one to the other, though the
meaning of them the moving picture boys could only guess at.

Immediately following the explosion, which seemed to come from the side
of the _Jeanne_ where Labenstein had flashed his signal, the German and
the Frenchman had subsided into silence. Each one had given voice to an
exclamation in his own tongue and then had hurried away.

And so occupied were Blake and his chums with what had gone on out there
on the ocean--trying to guess what had happened--that they did not
notice the departure of the two men.

"What's that you said it was?" asked Joe of his partner. "I mean the
explosion."

"I think it was a depth charge," answered Blake. "One of the destroyers
must have sighted a submarine and let go a bomb, with a heavy charge of
explosive, which didn't go off until after it got to a certain depth
below the surface. That's the new way of dealing with submarines, you
know."

"I only hope they got this one, with a depth charge or any other way,"
remarked Charles Anderson. "Look, we're lighting up! I guess the danger
must be over."

Lights were flashing on the deck of the _Jeanne_, and signals came from
the destroyers. It was evident that messages were being sent to and fro.

And then, as passengers crowded up from their staterooms, some in a
state of panic fearing a torpedo had been launched at the ship, another
muffled explosion was heard, and in the glare of the searchlights from
one of the convoying ships a column of water could be seen spurting up
betw