Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/54

 down on the charts as reefs and then the sea kicks a lot of sand over them and they're islands. And maybe ten years after that they're just rocks again. A couple of good gales tears them all to pieces. This one looks as if it had been here quite a spell, though." Cochran broke the wrapper of a package of chewing gum, proffered it to Nelson and stowed a piece between his teeth. "Anyway," he went on when he had got the gum working nicely, "you can be sure of one thing, Chatty. We didn't come down here and slop around half the night in this nasty chop without some reason. Maybe that island's one of these German submarine bases you read about."

Nelson smiled. "They might have chosen a more cheerful one, I'd say. We'll find out pretty quick, I guess, for there's the Old Man now."

But the solution of the mystery was not due to be solved just yet. Lieutenant Hattuck, very erect and smart in his uniform, walked forward to the bridge. Then he and the junior made their way to the bow and, standing by the gray-jacketed gun, examined the shore through their glasses and talked together for several minutes. Green, Ole Hanson's relief, climbed out of the wireless room and approached them with a fluttering wisp of paper in his hand. Action followed 32