aerial and wrenched
it loose. It was a long tubing very much like an ordinary length of
gas pipe set up usually forward as one of the wireless supports, and
folding down into the deck plates when the _Dewey_ was stripped for
undersea navigation.

"I am going to take a chance on exploding that one mine that seems to
be our hoodoo," shouted Lieutenant McClure.

Jack waited anxiously to see just what his lieutenant was doing. Taking
the wireless upright in hand after the manner of a track athlete
throwing the javelin, the young commander drew it well back and then
launched it full upon the mine floating not more than fifteen or
twenty feet from the _Dewey_.

"Hit it!" exclaimed McClure as the improvised battering ram left his
strong right arm.

It did, and with the desired result. The impact of the long steel
tubing directly upon the shell of the mine was sufficient to explode
the deadly thing. A terrific detonation rent the air and immediately
a column of water was hurled high, towering over the _Dewey_ like a
geyser, and then engulfing the little submarine. Jack and his
commander were swept off their feet in the deluge. As though some
unseen hand had suddenly clutched them with a grip of steel the pair
were flung from the deck of their craft into the seething foam.

It seemed an endless eternity to Jack as he was carried down into the
depths. The roar of a million cataracts throbbed in his brain and
before his mind flashed the panorama of his life.
Home---Winchester---Brighton---all the old chums and the "profs!"

Death seemed so near to the youth as ho felt his strength giving
way. His senses reeled. In his ears pealed the medley of a thousand
bells. In this horrible abyss he knew he could not long survive.

Then, just when it seemed life was gone, his head shot up out of the
water and he found himself swimming free and breathing normally again.
Above, the same old blue sky. Turning over on his back and paddling
thus until he floated, the boy remembered gain the submersible and
the fearful mine explosion that had cast him into the sea.

He looked for the _Dewey_ and in a moment beheld it still riding the
waves. Yes, the old sub had survived the mine explosion, or at least,
was still afloat, if damaged.

But what about Lieutenant McClure? Now Jack recalled his gallant
commander and how he, too, had been cast from the deck in the deluge.
Was "Little Mack" still alive?

The _Dewey_ was slowly pic