Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns

Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns, by Halsey Davidson, Illustrated by R. Emmett Owen
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Title: Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns Sinking the German U-Boats
Author: Halsey Davidson

Release Date: March 11, 2006 [eBook #17967]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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NAVY BOYS BEHIND THE BIG GUNS
Or
Sinking the German U-Boats
by
HALSEY DAVIDSON
Author of "Navy Boys after the Submarines," "Navy Boys Chasing a Sea Raider," Etc.
Illustrated

New York George Sully & Company Publishers

[Illustration: The gunners were literally "stripped for action," their glistening supple bodies alert as panthers.]

* * * * *

BOOKS FOR BOYS
NAVY BOYS SERIES
BY HALSEY DAVIDSON
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated
NAVY BOYS AFTER THE SUBMARINES Or Protecting the Giant Convoy
NAVY BOYS CHASING A SEA RAIDER Or Landing a Million Dollar Prize
NAVY BOYS BEHIND THE BIG GUNS Or Sinking the German U-Boats
NAVY BOYS TO THE RESCUE Or Answering the Wireless Call for Help
NAVY BOYS AT THE BIG SURRENDER Or Rounding Up the German Fleet
THE NAVY BOYS ON SPECIAL SERVICE Or Guarding the Floating Treasury
GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY GEORGE SULLY & COMPANY
Navy Boys Chasing a Sea Raider
PRINTED IN U.S.A.

* * * * *

NAVY BOYS BEHIND THE BIG GUNS
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I A RUN TO ELMVALE 1
II THE STRANGER 11
III THE WATER WHEEL 19
IV S. P. 888 27
V THE STREAK ON THE WATER 38
VI AN OLD FRIEND 44
VII FOG HAUNTED 54
VIII PUZZLED 64
IX JUST TOO LATE 74
X AHEAD OF THE FLOOD 81
XI UNEXPECTED PERIL 90
XII COURAGE 100
XIII THE KENNEBUNK SAILS 106
XIV AN UNEXPECTED TARGET 115
XV THE BIG GUN SPEAKS 127
XVI AN ACCIDENT 135
XVII BLOWN UP 144
XVIII MORE TROUBLE 155
XIX COINCIDENCE 162
XX THE WITCH'S WARNING 173
XXI THE EXPLANATION 180
XXII THE RACE 190
XXIII UNDER SPECIAL ORDERS 196
XXIV TICK-TOCK! TICK-TOCK! 204
XXV IN THE THICK OF THE FIGHT 211

NAVY BOYS BEHIND THE BIG GUNS
CHAPTER I
A RUN TO ELMVALE
When Philip Morgan announced his approach by an unusually cheerful strain, Al Torrance was already behind the steering wheel of his father's car, with the engine purring smoothly.
"'Lo, Whistler," Al said. "Thought you had forgotten where we planned to go this morning. What made you so late?"
"'Lo, Torry. Never hit the hay till after one. Just talking. My jaws ache," Morgan broke off his whistling long enough to say.
"Sure it isn't whistling that's made your jaws ache?" queried his chum slyly. "Not having had much chance to pipe up while we were aboard ship, I guess you are making up for lost time."
"Talking, I tell you," returned Morgan. "Thought the girls never would let me stop. And father, too. Mother won't own up she's reconciled to my being in the Navy," and Whistler grinned suddenly. "But she listened to all I told them, too. She was just as eager to hear about it as Phoebe and Alice."
"Guess you made yourself out to be some tough garby," chuckled Torrance, using the term the seamen themselves employ to designate a sailor.
"Oh, I gave 'em an earful," Whistler agreed, and puckered his lips again.
"Come on and get in," ordered Torry impatiently. "Pa's got to use the car this afternoon. But he says we can have it to run over to Elmvale in, if we want."
"Where are Frenchy and Ikey?" Whistler broke off in his tune again to ask.
"Going to wait for us down on High Street--and Seven Knott, too."
"Did Hansie say he'd go?" cried the other sailor boy. "Bet he's sore as he can be because he's not with the Colodia and Lieutenant Lang."
"He'd never 've taken this furlough, he says, if his mother hadn't begged so hard. Did you ever see a garby so stuck on a gold stripe as Seven Knott is on Lieutenant Commander Lang?" said Torry, rather scornfully.
"I don't know. Mr. Lang has been a good friend to Hans Hertig. This is his second hitch under Mr. Lang," Whistler said.
"Wonder if we'll enlist a second time, too, Whistler."
"Bet you!" was the succinct reply.
The car started under Torry's careful guidance, and they quickly whisked around the corner into the main street of Seacove, the small port in which the chums had been born and had lived all their lives until they had enlisted as seamen apprentices in the Navy not many months before.
They passed the little cottage in which Mrs. Hertig, Seven Knott's mother, lived. Beyond that was the Donahue home, where Frenchy's widowed mother lived with his younger