craft up,
afterwards; we couldn't ever tow her this way."

"Why, sir? Because she's too heavy?"

"Not only that, but she lies too low. On end, the way she is now, she's
probably drawing thirty-five or forty feet of water. She might stick in
a channel somewhere and that would be worse than getting rid of her out
here."

The boats raced back to the ship and the survivors were handed up to the
_Miami_ where the surgeon immediately took charge. All preparations had
been made, meanwhile, for the placing of mines and Eric was told off in
the boat under the second lieutenant to see to the placing of the
charges.

This was work to which Eric was unaccustomed and he watched with
considerable interest the gunner's handling of the mines. It was easy
enough to place the charges in the upper works of the stern where they
would be sure to blow that part of the ship to pieces, but so much of
the forward portion of the hulk was under water that the problem there
was more difficult. In order to make sure of the job, five mines were
set and connected with each other by electric wiring. A long strand of
insulated wire was then carried to the boat, over a hundred feet in
length.

At a signal given him by the lieutenant, Eric pressed the button. There
was a tremendous roar as a waterspout shot up from the surface of the
sea. As though some vast leviathan had passed underneath the old bark
and shouldered her out of the water, the long black hull heaved herself
up slowly. She seemed to hang poised for a fraction of a second on the
surface of the water as if, in her death agony, she had for a moment
thought of her old life when, under press of sail, she flew bounding
over the billows, defying the very elements which at last had worked her
ruin. Only for a moment she hung there, then with a dull crash she
broke her back. The bow plunged downward with a sullen plunge, but the
stern still held poised. Then, quite suddenly, the air imprisoned in the
hull broke free and slowly, almost, it seemed, with dignity, the
remainder of the vessel sank forever beneath the surface of the waters.

It was the end of the _Luckenback_ and somewhere at the bottom of the
sea her distorted steel plating marks the spot where rest the nine
members of her crew lost before the rescuing Coast Guard cutter hove in
sight.

CHAPTER XI

THE WRECKERS OF THE SPANISH MAIN

"Well, Eric," said Homer Tierre to his friend, as they stood together
one evening a