burst and
sputtered fire. The scouting hydroplane dashed over the submarine like a
bat; two pale faces looked down and disappeared. Then right above the
stern of the _Kate_ a grenade exploded and one of the sailors dropped
his rifle, clutched his face, toppled over the railing, and disappeared
beneath the water.

"All hands below!" cried Andrey; and, watching where the shells fell
thickest, he began to give his orders. The _Kate_ circled like a
run-down hare, while all along the darkening skyline the smoking stacks
of mine-layers and destroyers were visible as the enemy's ruthless ring
rapidly tightened about the submarine.

Having had her wireless mast shot off by a shell, the _Kate_ now dashed
toward the rocky shore, running awash. Six sparks shot up in the dark
and six steel-clad demons hissed above the boat. The long shadow of a
ship glided along the shore. The _Kate_ shook, and a sharp-nosed torpedo
detached itself from her hull and glided away under the water to meet
the [v]silhouette of the vessel. A moment passed, and a fluffy,
mountainous mass of fire and water rose from the spot where the stacks
of a mine-layer had projected shortly before. The mountain sank and the
silhouette disappeared. The _Kate_ entered a baylet among the rocks,
submerged, and lay on the sandy sea-bed.

Two weeks the submarine remained in the inlet, completely cut off from
the rest of the world. By day she hid in the deep, and only under the
cover of night did she rise to the surface to get a supply of air. The
greatest precautions were necessary, for there was little likelihood
that the enemy believed the submarine to be destroyed.

At the end of that time some action was inevitable, as the boat's
supplies had given out; for three days the crew had fed on fish which
one of the men had caught at great risk. Audrey decided to leave the bay
and make a supreme effort to run the enemy's cordon.

About daybreak, as the _Kate_ was nearing the surface of the sea, the
crew became aware of a tremendous muffled cannonade; and when the boat
emerged into a white fog, the whole coast shook and echoed with the roar
and crash of a sea battle. Broadsides and terrific explosions alternated
with the crackling of guns. It was as though a multitude of sea-devils
coughed and blew and roared at each other.

"Quick, sir," shouted Yakovlev, holding on to the railing; "we can break
through now!" His teeth rattled.

The preparations for the dash had been c