hips, cruisers and smaller armored vessels than
Whistler and his mates had ever seen before. They flew the flags of
three nations, and they were prepared to move _en masse_ upon the enemy
at the briefest notice.

CHAPTER XXV

IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT

The methods of strategy by which the German Navy, or a large part of it,
was tolled out of its impregnable hiding place the Navy boys did not
learn till long afterwards. But Phil, at least, half realized that the
German High Command believed that the way to shelling the British coast
by her great naval guns was at last opened.

The Allied fleet moved on a certain day and at a certain hour, and with
the open sea as its destination. It was a calm and utterly peaceful sea
through which the _Kennebunk_ sailed with her sister ships.

The high bow of the superdreadnaught crashed through the seething
waters. Her lookouts traced the course of each tiny blot upon the
distant sea-line.

Suddenly, out of the north, appeared a scout cruiser, her funnels
vomiting volumes of dense smoke that flattened down oilily upon the sea
in her wake. Her stern guns spat viciously at some craft of low
visibility which followed her.

Immediately everybody aboard the _Kennebunk_ forgot the other ships of
the squadron. The enemy was in sight, and the work would be cut out for
every man aboard the superdreadnaught.

The cruiser came leaping toward the fleet, her signal flags fluttering
messages. A gun boomed on the flagship. Bugles shrilled from every deck
of the _Kennebunk_.

Messages were wigwagged from ship to ship. But aboard the _Kennebunk_
there was just one order that interested every one.

"Clear decks for action!"

The divisions responded to the notes of the bugle with a snappiness that
delighted the officers on the bridge. As they had gone through the
manoeuvres a thousand times in practice, so now they faced the enemy
with the same precision.

Ventilators, life-lines, parts of the superstructure and deck woodwork
came down and were stowed in their proper place. Boats dropped from
their davits, were hurriedly lashed together, their plugs pulled, and
left to sink, riding attached to sea anchors formed of their own spars
and oars. "Cleared for action!" when reported to the commander meant
exactly that! Not a superfluous object in the way of the activities of a
fighting crew.

"Battle stations!"

The four friends from Seacove knew exactly where they were to be all
thr