how they work
their nets, I suppose?"

"Why, I think so, sir. The net is carried by two ships, and when a
submarine crashes into the net she either tangles her nose or her stern
in the net and can be disposed of with ease."

"Yes, but what I want to know," said Jack, "is why she doesn't fire a
torpedo through the net and sink the torpedoboat?"

"Because," said Lord Hastings, with a smile, "being beneath the water,
she is blind. She doesn't know in which direction to fire it. You forget
that the German submarines are not equipped as was the D-16."

"The good old D-16," said Jack. "How I wish we had her again, sir."

"And I," agreed Lord Hastings. "And yet she came near being the death of
all of us."

"So she did," said Frank, "but at the same time I wouldn't mind being
aboard another such craft."

"Well, just between the three of us," said Lord Hastings, "I may tell
you that another such craft now is nearing completion and probably will
be at our disposal within a month."

"You don't mean it, sir!" exclaimed Frank happily.

"If he didn't mean it he wouldn't say so," Jack reproved his chum.

"Oh, I know that," replied Frank. "But it seems too good to be true."

"But just where are we bound now, sir?" asked Jack.

"Well," said Lord Hastings, "at first we shall do a little cruising off
the Irish coast. In fact, most of the motorboat fleet is in Irish
waters. Since the sinking of the _Lusitania_, most of the work has been
done there; and apparently the German government is still bent upon the
destruction of big passenger ships, neutral or not."

"Well, the sooner we can get busy the better it will suit me," declared
Frank.

"I agree with you there," said Jack.

It was a long voyage for the little motorboat, and though Lord Hastings
wished to join the others of the fleet at the earliest possible moment,
he did not push the little craft, which bore the name of _The Hawk_.

Therefore, it was late the next day when they came to where the
motorboat fleet had its base--Bantry Bay, on the extreme southern coast
of Ireland.

As the little motorboat nosed its way into the harbor, several others
dashed forward, with guns bared and alert figures standing ready for
action. It was not until Lord Hastings had been satisfactorily
identified that the warlike atmosphere disappeared.

The two lads looked about curiously. The bay was black with the little
craft.

"Great Scott! There are more than two hundred here, if yo