Philip Morgan was already crouching for a leap. Seven Knott passed him
and threw himself upon the unleashed peril that rolled about the deck.

He grasped the cylinder as he fell, but it was snatched out of his arms
by the next plunge of the vessel. Seven Knott got to his knees and
sought to seize the bomb again when it charged back across the deck.

The thing seemed actually to evade him; and swinging at an unexpected
angle as Seven Knott threw himself desperately forward, the heavy
cylinder banged the boatswain's mate on the head.

The man was knocked down by the blow. He suddenly straightened out and
then relaxed, at full length, upon the sliding deck. Like an inanimate
lump his body followed the runaway bomb, but more slowly, to the lower
rail.

Again the deck heaved upon that side, and the cylinder roared across it.
It missed the unconscious petty officer. At that instant Whistler Morgan
made his leap.

He had taken time to study the angle at which the bomb was rolling; he
fell upon and grappled it as though it were a football.

"Oh! Oh! _Colodia!_" yelled his three mates in wild excitement.
"Hurray!"

"Well done, _Colodia_!" echoed a voice behind them, and Ensign
MacMasters appeared from the after hatchway, with the commanding officer
of the S. P. 888 in his wake.

Some of the chaser's crew were now approaching the scene from forward.
Ensign Filson leaped for the safety pin that had been jerked out of the
depth bomb just as Phil Morgan, on his knees, set the bomb up on its
flat end.

"Good boy, Whistler!" shrieked Torry.

Ensign Filson reached the spot and slipped the plug into place. Between
them they held the bomb upright on its flat end until the seamen could
pass a line around it.

The dangerous thing had yet to be held right there until Lieutenant
Perkins ordered the submarine chaser headed up into the sea. Then the
bomb could be removed to a place of safety.

The whole affair had occupied seconds, that is all. But all felt as
though an hour had passed!

"Good boy, Morgan!" declared Ensign MacMasters, his face shining with
approval. "Is the mate hurt badly?"

The petty officer was still unconscious. They picked him up to carry him
below. Then the whole crowd began to cheer, and the officers did not
forbid it. Even Lieutenant Perkins wrung Phil Morgan's hand as he stood
abashed in the center of the congratulatory group on the quarter deck.

"I'd be proud to have you as one of my own crew, Mor