rescuing vessel approach.
Velo opened his eyes, felt the lap of the waves round his shoulders,
and gave a convulsive leap out of the sea.

"Had a good nap?" asked Zaidos.

Velo groaned. "I am going to die," he said.

"Not just yet," Zaidos assured him. "I wish you would have a little
more courage," he said crossly. "You are in the _greatest_ luck. The
transport is gone, with all her officers and nearly all of the men. I
don't suppose there are more than six or eight hundred afloat out of
the three thousand on board. Look over there, Velo. There is a Red
Cross ship coming along. She will pick us up, and then we will be all
right."

Velo looked eagerly and gave a cry of dismay.

"Oh, oh, _oh_!" he screamed. "We are lost; we are lost!" He burst
into tears.

Zaidos rolled over and looked.

When you are in the water, as every Boy Scout knows, every object
afloat looks mountainous. A common rowboat looms up like a three
master, and Zaidos, looking in the direction of the Red Cross ship, saw
a couple of battleships approaching, while a huge Zeppelin like a great
bird of prey floated overhead. How many submarines were playing around
beneath him, he could not guess. One thing was clear. They were in a
position stranger than any story, madder than any dream. Floating
there, almost exhausted in the sea, they were to be in the center of a
sea fight. Velo still wept, and Zaidos himself felt a sob of
excitement choke his throat.

"We are going to get it from both sides," he remarked to his cousin.
"That Red Cross ship is trying to get out of range until this thing is
over."

"What is going to become of us?" cried Velo.

"Don't know!" said Zaidos. "And I don't so much care. At least I
don't mean to worry. I've watched a lot of poor swimmers go down just
from exhaustion; and if we are not rescued, why, we just _won't_,
that's all. I'll tell you one thing, though," he said with sudden
anger, "if you don't brace up and stop making me listen to your
whimpering, I am going to duck you again. I did it before when you
were trying to drown us both and I am perfectly willing to do it again.
You had better brace up!"

Velo was silent, and Zaidos fixed his eyes on the most amazing sight
that a Scout ever witnessed.

Suddenly a wild shot ripped across the water, skipped along twenty feet
from them, plowed its way into the sea, then disappeared.

Velo screamed. Another shot followed so close that the wave f