Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/182

 it be a bully night to get a torpedo square under the conning tower?"

"Would a torpedo run straight in such a sea?" asked Nelson practically.

"Search me! I suppose not, though. Still, if a U-boat came close enough and aimed at our broadside—Bang! Good night, everybody!"

"But there aren't any U-boats way over here, are there?"

"Probably not, though we aren't so far out of the zone after all. If you could always tell where those sneaking critters kept themselves everything would be easy. They've got a cute way of being where you don't expect them, Nep. Thank goodness, we're getting air in here at last. It was sort of fierce when I went by-low."

"Are they recharging the batteries now?" asked Nelson.

"Suppose so. They'd better be if they aren't, because first thing anyone knows one of these little ripples will bust in a few plates and we'll be exceedingly wet! Let's go through and get some coffee."

Martin didn't trouble to pull his boots on, but shuffled, staggering along, to the forward quarters. Most of the men off duty were already there, which, since a submarine operating on the 157