Page:The Wireless Operator with the U.S. Coast Guard.djvu/92

 of them dangerously close to the Iroquois’ small boat.

When Henry looked at the sea again, the derelict had disappeared. But several dangerously large pieces of the hulk still floated. Immediately Lieutenant Hill began to herd these together. When they were all collected, the sailors lashed them together, a second mine was secured beneath them, and once more the small boat pulled away to the length of the detonating wires. Again there was a terrific explosion, and this time the shattered bits of wreckage shot even higher into the air than they had gone before. When they had all dropped back into the sea again, the small boat rowed back to where the derelict had been, but nothing big enough to menace navigation now floated above the waves.

Lieutenant Hill turned his boat toward the Iroquois. A few minutes later the dripping craft once more hung on its davits, securely lashed to its strongback. The men had returned to their stations, the propeller was churning the salty sea, and the Iroquois was speeding back to her anchorage off Staten Island, with her task accomplished, and the pathway of the ocean freed of one more menace.

Truly, Henry thought, it was a great thing to belong to the Coast Guard. If there was any way by which he could accomplish it, he meant