uted Dan. "What are you doing down there?"

Dan's hail, like that of the midshipman, met with no response.

"Lay forward, anchor watch!" shouted the officer of the deck.

A quartermaster came running to the quarterdeck.

"Lower away the first whaleboat. Turn out your men in a hurry.
Boatswain's mate!"

"Aye, aye, sir," bellowed a deep voice somewhere down one of the
corridors leading off from the quarter-deck.

"Turn out the coxswain of the second whaleboat. Look alive, everybody."

"Aye, aye, sir," chorused several voices.

"Anchor watch!"

"Aye, aye, sir."

"What are they doing?"

"Casting off, I think, sir."

"How many men?"

"Two, I think, sir."

The officer of the deck shouted a warning to the men and ordered them
to return instantly to the ship; and then, addressing Dan, he shouted:

"Stop them, if you can!"

"Aye, aye, sir."

Dan's raincoat and hat were off in a twinkling. These dropped one by
one to the deck, as he sped along, bounding over obstructions that he
did not even see, so familiar was he with the course he was following.

"They're rowing away, sir. I'll get them," shouted the Battleship Boy
confidently.

He darted out on the lower boom, grasping the life line strung along
its length for protection to the sailors passing over the boom.

"Boat ahoy!" cried Dan.

The men bent to their oars; that is, one of them did, for there is but
one pair of oars in a dinghy.

"It'll be the worse for you men, down there, if you try to get away.
The whaleboats are being turned out to go for you, and I'm after you
myself."

His warning had no effect, unless it were to hasten the work of the man
at the oars. In his excitement the fellow let an oar slip from its
fastening, keeling him over on his back in the boat. A muttered
exclamation reached the boy on the boom.

Without an instant's hesitation Dan crouched down on the boom, letting
himself down until he hung suspended over the sea by his hands.

For a brief instant he peered down into the sea some thirty feet below
him, taking mental measurement of the distance, figuring just how near
he would come to hitting the dinghy were he to let himself go.

"I'll chance it," he muttered. "It's my duty to try. I am under
orders to stop them, and stop them I will!"

The Battleship Boy let go.

His body shot downward, striking the water with a splash that was heard
far back on the quarter-deck.

CHAPTER XIII

THE BATTLE OF THE