Ikey Rosenmeyer and his special chum, Frenchy Donahue, were in the bows on watch. Even those two “gabbers,” as Al Torrance called them, knew enough to keep their tongues still while on duty; and nobody on the destroyer had keener vision than Ikey and Frenchy. Almost together the two hailed the bridge: “Off the port bow, sir!” while Ikey added “Starboard your helm!” A great cry went up from amidships. The _Colodia_ escaped the object just beneath the surface by scarcely a boat’s length. Men sprang to the depth-bomb arms and the crews to their guns. But it was not a submarine. A great wave caused by the swift shifting of the _Colodia’s_ helm, brought the object almost to the surface. “A mine!” roared the crew. The destroyer’s speed was slackened instantly. She swung broadside to the menace. A few snappy commands, and two of the deck guns roared. Instantly a geyser of water and smoke rose from the sea. The explosion of the mine could have been seen for many miles. Had the destroyer collided with it---- “We’d have gone to Davy Jones’ locker, sure enough, fellows,” said Al Torrance. “Those mines the Huns are sowing through these seas now would blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. Suppose the _Leviathan_, troop ship, scraped her keel on that thing?” There was much discussion all over the destroyer about the mine. It suggested that the submarine that had sunk the _Newcastle Boy_ might be a mine-sower. That fact would help identify the submarine, for all types of German submersibles are not fitted with mine wells. “You see how it is, George,” said Phil Morgan to their new chum. “These seas around here are just as safe as a powder factory--just about! How does it make you feel?” “Pshaw!” returned Belding, “didn’t I tell you we almost caught a sub when I was out on the _Sirius_? I don’t believe the Heinies have got so many of ’em, after all.” “Never you mind,” said Whistler. “They’ve got enough if they have but one, believe me! Just think how we fellows used to gas about submarines and all that. Before the war, I mean! We never dreamed any country would use them as the Germans have.” The tone of the whole crew after the narrow escape from the mine was intense. They were on the lookout for almost anything to happen. Before mid-afternoon, while still out of sight of land, the top hailed the deck officers. “Steamer in sight, sir!” The position and course of the stranger was given, and immediately everybody who had glasses turned them in the indicated direction. The destroyer’s course was changed a trifle, for everything that floated on the sea was examined by the Allied patrol. Soon the high, rusted sides of an ancient tramp steamship hove into the view of all. She was a two-stack steamer, and despite her evident age and frowsiness she was making good time toward the Thames.