Page:Cruise of the Dry Dock.djvu/342

 thirty yards on the inside of the tug popped up the periscope.

The American rushed to the wheel, jerked it to the starboard. “Yonder! Yonder!” he bellowed in Caradoc's ear, pointing.

Again the guns shrilled forth; a steel sleet wailed about theVulcan. Into the teeth of this blast, the tug circled and lunged.

With fascinated eyes, Madden watched the periscope cut a swirling circle on the midst of the beaten water and straighten on the Panther.

Now the metal eye was directly under their swaying starboard. A moment they sped side by side, toward the imperiled cruiser. Madden could almost have touched the wireless masts. A whine of bullets ripped one of their lifeboats like a saw and sputtered through the superstructure.

The periscope, which thrust six or seven feet out of water, disappeared under the swell of the Vulcan's hull. Suddenly the tug swung her blunt beak around with the sidelong blow of an angry swine. Madden went flying to the right rail of the bridge to stare down at the imminent tragedy.