and the sharp dash. Out to meet the hospital ship. "One of the
passengers is Mrs. Darrin." "A special interest."

CHAPTER XXII--THE RED CROSS TRAGEDY 222
The Navy and family matters. Under treble lookout. Sighted. Big
pay for a periscope. A wail of anguish. The race of rescue. S. O.
S. The sight of Belle. Crowded decks. Two compartments smashed in.
"No use, sir."

CHAPTER XXIII--A NOBLE FIGHT WITHOUT WEAPONS 230
Marine patchwork. Not enough rescue to go around. "Those Red Cross
women ought to be saved." But they decline. Dave approves. An
answer to S. O. S. The fight to survive. The nurses admit defeat.
The lurking peril.

CHAPTER XXIV--CONCLUSION 244

DAVE DARRIN

AFTER THE MINE LAYERS

CHAPTER I

WEIGHING ANCHOR FOR THE GREAT CRUISE

"IT sounds like the greatest cruise ever!" declared Danny Grin,
enthusiastically, as he rose and began to pace the narrow limits of the
chart-room of the destroyer commanded by his chum, Lieutenant-Commander
Dave Darrin.

"It is undoubtedly the most dangerous work we've ever undertaken," Darrin
observed thoughtfully.

"All the better!" answered Dan lightly.

"In our drive against the submarines off the Irish coast," Dave
continued, "we met perils enough to satisfy the average salt water man.
But this----"

"Is going to prove the very essence and joy of real fighting work at
sea!" Dan interposed.

"Oh, you old fire-eater!" laughed Darrin.

"Not a bit of a fire-eater," declared Dalzell with dignity. "I'm a
business man, Davy. Our business, just now, is to win the war by killing
Germans, and I've embarked upon that career with all the enthusiasm that
goes with it. That's all."

"And quite enough," Darrin added, soberly. "I agree with you that it's
our business to kill Germans, yet I could wish that the Germans
themselves were in better business, for then we wouldn't have to do any
killing."

"You talk almost like a pacifist," snorted Dan Dalzell.

"After this war has been won by our side, but not before, I hope to find
it possible to be a pacifist for at least a few years," smiled Darrin,
rising from his seat at the chart table.

Dan stood looking out through the starboard porthole. His glance roved
over other craft of war tugging at their anchors in the goodly harbor of
a port on the coast of England. As the destroyer