“Nice work, Anson,” Gray said quietly. “That was a close one. Let’s have a cup of coffee. You probably need it.” They turned toward the wardroom together, and March felt the eyes of all crewmen on him. “Steady at a hundred feet,” the Skipper ordered before leaving the control room, “and keep on course.” “Steady at one hundred,” came back the order. “Yes, sir.” Then the officers went into the wardroom and sat down just as Stan appeared at the door. “What in blazes happened?” he asked. “We just about got run down, that’s all,” the Skipper smiled. “Not an uncommon occurrence in submarining, Bigelow. Your friend Anson here took us down in a big hurry.” “Were _you_ on the bridge, March?” Stan asked. “Yes, if you’d known that,” March laughed, “you would have been twice as scared, wouldn’t you?” “Wow, we went down in a big hurry, all right,” Stan said. “Did you have to—to miss it?” “Guess so,” March said. “Anyway, they were unlimbering a gun the last thing I saw and would’ve been shooting at us if we’d still been in sight.” “Yes, you did the right thing, all right,” Gray said. “And without much time to think about it.” “But the crew was marvelous,” March said. “I got the call back that the ship was rigged almost before I got the order out of my mouth. It’s a good feeling to know a crew can act like that, isn’t it, Gray? Especially when a third of it is brand new.” “Yes, mighty satisfying,” Larry agreed. “And just as satisfying to know the same thing about your new officers. I’m going to feel pretty confident when we suddenly have six Jap destroyers pouncing on us all of a sudden.” “Say, I just thought of something,” Corvin said. “Those poor guys in that freighter are probably still looking frantically for signs of a periscope and sitting there biting their nails waiting for a torpedo to blast them to kingdom come.” Gray looked at his watch. “They’re just about getting over that by now,” he said. “They’re just concluding that we _are_ an American sub and not a German. And they’re thanking their lucky stars.” “Just like us,” McFee added. In a few minutes the Skipper went out and ordered the sub up to periscope depth, had the ’scope run up and took a look around. “Not a thing in sight,” he announced. “Down ’scope.” As the big shaft slid down into its well in the deck, the Skipper ordered the ship to surface once again, and up she came. Gray was the first man up on the bridge, and the other officers quickly followed him. Lookouts and controlmen took their posts, and the _Kamongo_ went steadily ahead on her course. Corvin took over the watch on the bridge and in a little while the others went below. The crew had settled down and once more everything was serene and quiet. More days went by, but without the excitement of even a sight of ship or plane. After they had passed into the Caribbean Sea, the Skipper ordered them to hold up for two hours before proceeding.