ly two minutes were necessary to get the little undersea craft
down far enough to evade the prow of the oncoming destroyer, and even
then the conning tower furnished a target that might be crushed by the
nose of the enemy ship and precipitate an avalanche of water into the
hold---with disaster for the men assembled at their posts of duty.

"They are right on top of us now," screamed Sammy Smith as he hugged
the microphone receivers to his ears.

If the destroyer was going to get the submarine, now was the fatal
moment!

The _Dewey_ suddenly lunged like a great tiger leaping from the limb
of a tree upon its prey. Responding to a signal from his commander,
Chief Engineer Blaine had suddenly shot into the submarine's engines
the full power of the electric storage batteries and hurled the
_Dewey_ forward with a great burst of speed. There was a slim chance
that the swift-moving German warship might be sidestepped by a quick
maneuver, and the crafty McClure was leaving no deep-sea trick unturned.

"Nice place for the Fritzes to swing overboard one of those infernal
depth bombs," muttered Bill Witt.

A depth bomb! Jack and Ted knew all about the latest device being
employed by the warring nations in their campaigns against submarines.
Gigantic grenades, they were, carrying deadly and powerful explosives
timed to go off at any desired depth. One of them dropped from the
deck of the destroyer as it passed over the spot where the _Dewey_
had submerged might blow the diminutive ship to atoms.

With reckless abandon big bluff Bill Witt began to sing:

_"It's a long way to Tipperary, It's a long way to go. It's a long
way---"_

The song was interrupted by a harsh grating sound---the crashing of
steel against steel---and then the _Dewey_ shuddered from stem to
stern as though it had run suddenly against a stone wall.

Hurled from his feet by the fearful impact Jack sprawled on the steel
floor of the torpedo room. Ted, standing close by his chum, clutched
at one of the reserve torpedoes hanging in the rack in time to prevent
himself falling.

For a moment the _Dewey_ appeared to be going down by the stern, with
her bow inclined upward at an angle of forty-five degrees. Above all
the din and confusion could be heard the roar of a terrific explosion
outside. The little submersible was caught in the convulsion of the
sea until it seemed her seams would be rent and her crew engulfed.

From the engine room Chief Engin