lched a salvo at the tormenting submarine.

"Missed him by inches," growled McClure after waiting long enough to
be convinced that the torpedo had sped wide of the mark.

"And he is firing with all his aft guns," added Cleary as he observed
further the flashes of fire from the turrets of the German cruiser.

McClure signaled for the _Dewey_ to be submerged with all speed.

"He'll never get us," he announced a few seconds later as the submarine
dived down out of sight.

Jack and Ted, with the rest of their crew, had by this time shunted
another Whitehead into position, adjusted the mechanism and were
standing by awaiting developments.

"Just our luck to slip a moldy to the blooming Boche and draw a blank,"
grumbled Mike Mowrey, who was mad as a hornet over the "miss."

Ted was inclined to be a bit pessimistic, too; but Jack was sure the
_Dewey_ would make good on her next try. Bill Witt started to sing:
"We'll hang Kaiser Bill to a sour apple tree," but got little response.
The torpedo crew were glum over their failure to bag the German raiding
cruiser and in no mood for singing.

"Cheer up, boys; better luck next time," called out Navigating Officer
Binns as he peered into the torpedo compartment.

All at once the boys were startled by a cry from Sammy Smith, who had
suddenly leaped to his feet and stood swaying in the wireless room with
both microphone receivers tightly pressed to his ears. Above the
clatter of the _Dewey's_ engines the gunners forward could hear the
electrician talking excitedly to Lieutenant McClure.

"Listen, listen, other ships are coming up," Smith was shouting. "I
can hear their propellers. That's the fellow we missed moving off
there on our port quarter. You can hear at least two more here in the
starboard microphone. We seem to have landed plumb in the nest of a
German raiding party," rattled off the electrician glibly as he passed
the receivers to his commander for a verification of his report.

McClure snatched the apparatus and clamped it to his ears. For a
moment he listened to the mechanical whirr of churning propellers,
borne into his senses through the submarine telephone.

"Great!" he exclaimed. "Some more of the Kaiser's vaunted navy trying
to sneak away from their home base for a bit of trickery."

As he rang the engine room to shut off power, the American commander
added, with flashing eyes:

"If we don't bring down one of these prowlers before this night is ov