For a moment the two officers studied the haze of the night sea around them, unable yet to discern the form of the approaching vessel. And then came a huge specter, looming up directly off the starboard quarter of the _Dewey_ in the proportions of a massive warship. "Looks like a German cruiser," said the American lieutenant as he gripped the brass wheel of the periscope and gave himself intently to the task of divining the identity of the unknown ship. Cleary was making observations at the reserve periscope, the two officers having plunged the conning tower of the _Dewey_ in utter darkness that they might better observe the shadowy hulk bearing down upon them. "It is a German cruiser---_Plauen_ class---and coming up in a hurry at better than twenty knots," exclaimed McClure, as the outline of the ship was implanted clean-cut against the horizon dead ahead of the _Dewey_. His hand on the firing valve, the submarine commander waited only until the bow of the German warship showed on the range glass of the periscope, and then released a torpedo. Instantly a great volume of compressed air swirled into the upper port chamber; the bowcap was opened and the missile sped on its way. "Gee, I hope that 'moldy' lands her!" shouted Jack at the sound of the discharged torpedo. Although but a short time in the North Sea and just getting well acquainted with their English cousins, the American lads were fast learning the lingo of the deep. To every man aboard the _Dewey_ a torpedo was a "moldy," so named by the English seamen. As the torpedo crew sprang to reload the emptied chamber the _Dewey's_ diving rudders were turned, ballast was shipped and she started to dive. The plunge came none too soon. A lookout on the German cruiser, eagle-eyed about his daring venture, had noted the approaching torpedo and sounded an alarm. At the same moment the ship's rudder was thrown over and she swung to starboard, paralleling the position of the _Dewey_. And just as she came around one of her big searchlights aft flashed into life and shot its bright rays over the water. For a moment or two a finger of ghostly white shifted aimlessly to and fro over the surf ace of the sea and then centered full upon the disappearing periscope of the _Dewey_! Instantly came the boom of the ship's guns as they belched a salvo at the tormenting submarine. "Missed him by inches," growled McClure after waiting long enough to be convinced that the torpedo had sped wide of the mark. "And he is firing with all his aft guns," added Cleary as he observed further the flashes of fire from the turrets of the German cruiser. McClure signaled for the _Dewey_ to be submerged with all speed. "He'll never get us," he announced a few seconds later as the submarine dived down out of sight. Jack and Ted, with the rest of their crew, had by this time shunted another Whitehead into position, adjusted the mechanism and were standing by awaiting developments.