Page:Air Service Boys Flying for France.djvu/94

Rh propellers or machinery, so that being unable to escape she would fall into their clutches.

Some of the more timid among the passengers hastened below, unable to look the peril directly in the face. Others, and women among them, remained on deck and cheered every time the gunners sent a shell back toward the low-down hull of the German submersible.

"That was a dandy shot!" shouted Jack, wild with excitement. "A little short of the mark, but in a direct line. Next time look out, Kaiser Wilhelm, or you'll get it in the neck!"

One shell from the pursuing boat had burst so close to the steamer that several of the passengers received slight wounds. Nothing serious resulted, however. A woman., who found her arm bleeding—in her excitement she had not felt the tingle of the scratch—wrapped her pocket handkerchief about the wound and continued to watch and cheer. Jack was glad to know she was an American woman, the wife of a consul over somewhere in France, going to offer her services to one of the hospitals.

The steamer, a fast one, was constantly increasing the distance between pursuer and pursued. This interfered with the aim of the gunners, and in order that they might be better able to gauge the distance the captain had the