in time to find Captain Jack swinging the nose of the "Hastings" around.
Then the youthful commander signaled for the stop and the reverse.

"Mr. Somers!" shouted Jack, coolly but promptly.

"Aye, sir," called up Eph.

"Take a lantern and get down into the compartments along the keel
forward. See whether we're taking in any water."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"We struck part of a derelict, or something else submerged," guessed
Lieutenant Danvers. "We're lucky, indeed, if our plates are not
sprung."

Then he called down to Biffens to follow and aid Eph Somers.

It was almost dark now. Jack, reaching over, switched on the electric
sidelights outside, and also the white light at the signal masthead.
Then he turned on the searchlight, sending its bright ray through the
gathering darkness.

"Look over there, sir," muttered Jack, holding the searchlight ray
steadily on an object he believed he saw. "Don't you make out, sir,
bobbing up and down when the waves part, what looks like the stump of
the broken-off mast of a vessel submerged? Is it a death-dealing
derelict in the very path of coastwise navigation!"

"By Jove, yes!" gasped Lieutenant Danvers, hoarsely. "Your eyes are