CHAPTER III

A FIGHT OF THE GOOD OLD KIND

FULL speed ahead! Then ahead she leaped. Ere the destroyer had gained
full momentum her bow struck something under the water. Men were thrown
from their feet by force of the shock, and the destroyer lurched heavily.

"Hope we haven't torn our bottom out," muttered Darrin as he joined the
bow lookouts.

On the water appeared a patch of oil which rapidly broadened. A wooden
stool and other floating objects were visible.

"That looks like a fair score," declared the young lieutenant-commander,
at which the on-looking seamen grinned broadly.

Over the spot the destroyer again steamed, but nothing passing under her
keel was noticed. The sea was clear before her.

It was hours later when Darrin received, in a special code of the British
Admiralty, word that the "Olga" and her convoy had reached port, and the
"Olga's" officers and crew had been turned over to the Admiralty
officials.

In the meantime Dan Dalzell and the "Reed," as learned by occasional
wireless messages, had been separated at no time by more than two miles,
though neither craft was visible from the other.

Towards the end of the afternoon the fog began to lift. By nightfall it
had disappeared. The stars came out and the crescent moon hung near the
western horizon. Both destroyers had again turned north, the two craft
having drawn in within half a mile of each other.

Dave, after a two-hour nap, went to the bridge at about two bells--nine
o'clock. He had been there some ten minutes, chatting with Ensign Ormsby
in low tones, when of a sudden he broke off, listening intently.

"Sounds like distant firing, sir, two points off the port bow," hailed
one of the bow lookouts.

In a silence, broken only by the wash of the waters and the jar of the
engines, distant rumbling sounds were again heard.

"That's gun-fire," Dave declared. "Mr. Ormsby, have the signals shown so
that word may be conveyed to the 'Reed' to keep with us at full speed."

In another moment both destroyers dashed forward with a great roaring of
machinery and dense clouds of smoke trailing behind from the four stacks
of each.

When some miles had been covered, with the gun-fire sounding with much
greater distinctness, Darrin felt that he could judge the distance
properly. Turning on a screened light he consulted the chart.

"It's just about there," Darrin declared, placing his finger on a spot on
the map. "Ormsby, I believe that enem