Frenchy and Ikey darted out on deck
and joined their mates without being observed by the master-at-arms.
Whistler and Al Torrance were already hovering about their stations. If
the guns of Number Two turret got a chance, they hoped to have a hand in
the manipulation of them.

Suddenly there came a hail from the masthead:

"Q'deck-ahoy-sir!"

The boy up there ran his cry altogether in his excitement. The
navigating officer replied.

"Submarine astern, sir! Can see the periscope bobbing, sir!" was the
statement that changed the entire atmosphere of the battleship from that
of mere curiosity and interest to the wildest excitement.

CHAPTER XV

THE BIG GUN SPEAKS

The thing the lookout had spied bobbing in the sea was not exactly in
the wake of the battleship, for those who rushed to the port rail could
see it quite well. It wabbled about in a most eccentric way, as though
the submarine attached to it had risen just as the _Kennebunk_ passed
and had received the full force of her swell.

"Jingo! that's a funny lookin' periscope," drawled one second-class
seaman, a new recruit, craning his long neck to see over the heads of
the group which Frenchy and Ikey had joined.

"What did you think they'd look like?" demanded another.

"Something like a smokestack with a curlycue on the end of it," was the
reply.

Frenchy and Ikey were giggling immeasurably. The former said: "Isa Bopp
couldn't beat that, could he?"

"Oi, oi!" sighed Ikey ecstatically. "A periscope like a smokestack!"

But more than this new recruit aboard the _Kennebunk_ began to doubt
the validity of the bobbing thing in the water astern. The big
battleship was being swerved to bring the port broadside to bear upon
the now distant object. The bugle rang for stations. The sudden activity
of the whole ship's company was inspiring.

Of a sudden there came a hail from the other masthead where two lookouts
stood in the cage with glasses.

"On deck, sir! Submarine just awash on the starboard quarter, sir!"

The cry was in truth a startling one. Whistler and Torry, who had sprung
with their mates to the guns of the second turret, were on the starboard
side. A second submarine? Why, it seemed the ship was being surrounded
by these wasps of the sea.

A sharp whistle sounded in the turret. The officer in charge sprang to
the tube.

"Ready for deflection and range? Stand by!" was the order.

"Aye, aye, sir!" responded the turret captain.

Ammu