“Sure, it’s the greatest experience we’ve had,” admitted the Irish lad. “For we don’t know whether we are approaching friend or foe.” Nor was the destroyer’s approach visible to those aboard the sailing ship for some time. Her color and the gray fog that lingered on the surface of the sea aided in this. There were no more guns for a time, but it was quite evident that the sailing vessel had lost much headway. It was then that the lookouts in the tops of the _Colodia_ first glimpsed the ship that had fired the guns. She was a steamer coming rapidly up on the course of the sailing vessel. Two more guns were fired, but the shells seemed not to have burst near the victim of the outrage. They were meant merely as a threat. The sailing craft which was nearer to the destroyer was observed to be signaling with flags. The signals were in a code that the signalmen of the _Colodia_ did not know, and they so reported to Commander Lang. “The Huns aboard the _Redbird_ are signaling to the Huns on the _Sea Pigeon_,” was the confident declaration of prophetic Al Torrance. “If it is so, you can just believe that they are telling the raider of our approach. They must see the _Colodia_ coming now,” Whistler observed. Suddenly, with the sun’s round face appearing above the sea line, the last wisps of fog were whipped away. The tropical heat burned up the moisture in a flash. “Boats at the davits of the ship now being manned, sir!” came the hail from one of the destroyer’s lookouts. “They are abandoning ship!” was the word passed along the decks. “If it is the _Redbird_!” murmured Belding to Phil Morgan, “what do you suppose will happen to my father and mother and the girls?” Whistler had no answer ready. He kept his lips shut grimly and stared straight ahead. The distance of the destroyer from the steamer believed to be the German raider, was too great as yet for a shot to be tried. They were near enough to the sailing ship to see two boats launched before it was considered well to use the guns. Then the _Colodia_ sent her first shells close to the boats that were being rowed toward the steam craft. “There are only men in those lifeboats,” declared Ensign MacMasters, who had been examining the distant specks through powerful glasses. “It looks as though the mutineers had abandoned ship and passengers and were attempting to join their fellow countrymen aboard the _Sea Pigeon_.” Immediately the commander ordered shells to be dropped between the small boats and the steamer, and the long distance guns began to crack at the raider over the heads of the escaping mutineers. With her smoke trailing behind her and the guns barking in rapid succession, the _Colodia_ raced toward the scene. She kept well away from the sailing craft, but she drove on in a way to cut off the two rowboats from the raider. That it was the _Sea Pigeon_, nobody aboard the destroyer now doubted.