“Jump!” I cried. “Jump!” And I held out my arms to her. Instantly as though
with implicit confidence in my ability to save her, she leaped over the side of
the tug onto the sloping, slippery side of the U-boat. I reached far over to
seize her hand. At the same instant the tug pointed its stern straight toward
the sky and plunged out of sight. My hand missed the girl’s by a fraction of an
inch, and I saw her slip into the sea; but scarce had she touched the water
when I was in after her.
The sinking tug drew us far below the surface; but I had seized her the moment
I struck the water, and so we went down together, and together we came up—a few
yards from the U-boat. The first thing I heard was Nobs barking furiously;
evidently he had missed me and was searching. A single glance at the vessel’s
deck assured me that the battle was over and that we had been victorious, for I
saw our survivors holding a handful of the enemy at pistol points while one by
one the rest of the crew was coming out of the craft’s interior and lining up
on deck with the other prisoners.
As I swam toward the submarine with the girl, Nobs’ persistent barking
attracted the attention of some of the tug’s crew, so that as soon as we
reached the side there were hands to help us aboard. I asked the girl if she
was hurt, but she assured me that she was none the worse for this second
wetting; nor did she seem to suffer any from shock. I was to learn for myself
that this slender and seemingly delicate creature possessed the heart and
courage of a warrior.
As we joined our own party, I found the tug’s mate checking up our survivors.
There were ten of us left, not including the girl. Our brave skipper was
missing, as were eight others. There had been nineteen of us in the attacking
party and we had accounted in one way and another during the battle for sixteen
Germans and had taken nine prisoners, including the commander. His lieutenant
had been killed.
“Not a bad day’s work,” said Bradley, the mate, when he had completed his roll.
“Only losing the skipper,” he added, “was the worst. He was a fine man, a fine
man.”
Olson—who in spite of his name was Irish, and in spite of his not being Scotch
had been the tug’s engineer—was standing with Bradley and me. “Yis,” he agreed,
“it’s a day’s wor-rk we’re after doin’, but what are we goin’ to be doin’ wid
it now we got it?”
“We’ll run her into the nearest English port,” said Bradley, “and then we’ll
all go ashore and get our V. C.’s,” he concluded, laughing.
“How you goin’ to run her?” queried Olson. “You can’t trust these Dutchmen.”
Bradley scratched his head. “I guess you’re right,” he admitted. “And I don’t
know the first thing about a sub.”
“I do,” I assured him. “I know more about this particular sub than the officer
who commanded her.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account