o follow you."

"Then I'll make it clearer. In the torpedo compartment forward you have
six Red Head torpedoes fully charged with gun cotton?"

"Yes."

The inventor was regarding the naval officer with intense interest now,
and the boys also stood transfixed, their eyes riveted on the ensign as
he unfolded his plan.

"What I propose to do," he continued, "is to discharge from the side
torpedo tubes two torpedoes. They will be aimed at the cliff and, of
course, when they strike it, will explode."

"But in that case our bow would be blown off also, and we should perish
almost instantly," declared Mr. Barr.

"Wait a minute. I didn't say we would discharge them _directly_ at the
cliff. What I propose doing is this: We will aim one on each side of the
spot where our bow drove in, taking care to train the tubes so that the
torpedoes will not strike too near."

"Yes, the tubes are movable. That is one of the features of the
_Peacemaker_."

"Very well, then, they will be as easy to train in any desired direction
as a rapid fire gun."

"Exactly. But I never thought when I designed them that I might some day
owe my life to that very feature."

"Well, we are by no means out of the woods yet," responded the ensign
drily.

He led the way to the forward torpedo room. This was right in the bow of
the boat and most of the space was occupied by odd-looking machinery.
Wheels, worm gears and strange-looking levers were everywhere. At the
farthest end of the steel-walled chamber was a sort of derrick
contrivance. This was the piece of machinery used to raise the torpedoes
and swing them into the tubes.

Like the other machinery on the _Peacemaker_, the derrick was operated
by electricity. A pull of a lever and Mr. Barr had set its machinery in
motion. The torpedoes were placed on racks so that it was a simple
matter to secure them to the lifting chain of the derrick. First one and
then another of the polished steel implements of deadly warfare were
raised to the mouths of the torpedo tubes which projected into the
chamber.

Despite their immense weight, the torpedoes were placed within the tubes
with no more difficulty than a sportsman experiences in shoving two
cartridges into the breech of his gun.

In ten minutes from the time the party entered the torpedo chamber, the
steel implements of death had been "rammed home" and the breech of the
tubes clamped and fastened. On the _Peacemaker_ type of submarine
compressed ai