In a mine field! The retreating German warships had strewn the sea with the deadly implements of naval warfare, and the _Dewey_ had come up almost on top of a number of the unanchored explosives! CHAPTER VIII A RESCUE "If one of them pill boxes bumps us on the water line it's all day with your Uncle Sam's U-boat _Dewey_," vouchsafed Bill Witt as he stood surveying the mine field into which they had stumbled. In response to the warning from the lookout forward, Lieutenant McClure had stopped the submarine and was taking account of the dangers that beset his ship. The sea was running high and it was hard to discern the mines except when they were carried up on the swell of the waves. Swept along thus with the rise and fall of water, one of the floating missiles seemed now bearing down upon the _Dewey's_ port bow. Lieutenant McClure saw it just as a huge wave picked up the whirling bomb and carried it closer up toward the submarine. "All hands below; ready to submerge!" he called out sharply, at the same time directing Executive Officer Cleary to get the _Dewey_ under way. "Stay here with me a moment," continued McClure, addressing Jack. They were standing alone on the forward deck. Another wave brought the mine dangerously close. "You armed?" called out Lieutenant McClure. "Yes, sir," replied Jack, as he drew his heavy navy automatic. "Shoot at that mine, boy," commanded the officer. At the same time the young lieutenant drew his own weapon and began blazing away. He hoped thus to explode the deadly thing before it was hurled against the _Dewey_. Jack followed suit. The target, however, was so buffeted about by the waves that it was next to impossible to sight on it. The only thing to do was to fire at random, hoping against hope that a lucky shot would result in the detonation of the mine. "It's no use," shouted McClure above the crack of the firearms and the roar of the sea. Their shots were rattling harmlessly off the metallic sides of the mine. By now Cleary had swung the _Dewey_ around until she was pointed almost directly at the nearest mine, it being slightly off the port quarter. The engines had been reversed and started, and the submarine was drawing away. "We ought to clear this one and then be able to dive and get out of here," said McClure. But as he spoke a huge wave lifted the mine again and flung it full in the path of the submarine. As though drawn by some mysterious magnet the floating explosive seemed following the _Dewey_ at every turn---an unrelenting nemesis bent on the destruction of the American vessel. "Quick, Jack; grab that wireless upright forward!" commanded the young lieutenant. With alacrity Jack flung himself upon the steel aerial and wrenched it loose. It was a long tubing very much like an ordinary length of gas pipe set up usually forward as one of the wireless supports, and folding down into the deck plates when the _Dewey_ was stripped for undersea navigation.