THE YOUNG NAVAL CAPTAIN;

OR

THE WAR OF ALL NATIONS

By Captain Ralph Bonehill

Author of "With Taylor on the Rio Grande,"
"Boys of the Fort,"
"The Tour of the Zero Club," etc.

THOMPSON & THOMAS
CHICAGO

Copyrighted 1902
By THOMPSON & THOMAS

CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

My object in writing this imaginary tale of a war of all nations in years to come has been two-fold.

In the first place, I wished to draw the attention of my young readers to the fact that naval science, as well as science in all other branches, is making wonderful strides, and that for the future hardly anything seems impossible. In years gone by electric lights, the telephone and telegraph, not to mention wireless telegraphy, navigable balloons, and even our railroad trains would have been laughed at as impossibilities. Yet to-day we have all these things, and many others equally wonderful, and each day we look forward to something even more startling.

In the second place, I wished to draw attention to the fact that our country is growing with marvelous rapidity. From thirteen States we have multiplied to several times that number, and our flag waves from the coast of Maine in the East to the coast of Luzon in the West, and from Alaska in the North to Texas and Porto Rico in the South. What a truly great country it is, and what glorious freedom it grants to millions upon millions of people! In these days it is truly worth while to be an American, and in the days to come the honor will probably be even greater.

There is an important lesson to be learned from all this, and I would that every lad who reads these lines would take that lesson to heart. The opportunities for boys and young men were never greater than they are to-day. The future lies with you, and you can make of it, and of our grand country, what you will. The path to success is open to rich and to poor alike, and even the humble rail-splitter or the canal-boat boy can become President. Will you take hold of that opportunity or will you let it slip by?

Captain Ralph Bonehill.

THE YOUNG NAVAL CAPTAIN.

CHAPTER I.

THE UNITED STATES AGAINST THE WORLD.

"War is declared!"

"Impossible!"

"It is true. The news has just come by telephone from the cabinet chamber at Washington."

"And against whom?"

"Against the world!"

"Are you joking, Andy?"

"Oscar, I was never more serious in my life. The War Department has just sent the news to the office. The three new warships we are building must be completed without delay. The firm is offered a bonus of fifty thousand dollars if we can float them complete by the first of July."

"That is just six weeks off."

"Exactly, and it means that four months' work must be accomplished in that time. We can't do it," and Andy Greggs shook his head doubtfully.

He was a tall, well-built fellow of eighteen, with blue eyes and curly brown hair. He was a machinist, employed in the great Standard Shipyard of Bridgeport.

"We can do it and we will," answered Oscar Pelham decidedly. "We can work nights."

"It won't be enough."

"Then the firm will have to double the force."

"Where are you going to get the men?"

"Advertise for them—hunt for them—take them from other shipyards if necessary. If Uncle Sam wants those ships he is going to have them. But a war against the world! It's enough to stagger a fellow, Andy."

"So it is, Oscar, but it was bound to come, sooner or later. Foreign nations have been watching the United States with great envy since we whipped the Spaniards and gathered in Porto Rico and the Philippines, and when Cuba became a new state and Canada broke loose from England, I reckon they thought we were getting too big for our boots."

"No, the real trouble started in China," was the answer from Oscar Pelham. "England, France, Germany, Russia and Japan wanted to carve up poor China to suit themselves during the Yellow War of 1925 and Uncle Sam wouldn't allow it. Then South Africa tried for liberty again, and that put England's nose out of joint worse than ever when we helped the Boers to freedom. Then came the old quarrel about that money Turkey is owing us, and when we turned the Turkish kingdom inside out in 1928 that set all the rest of Europe in a rage."

"Well, we were justified in going for the Turks. They are the worst heathens on the face of the globe, outside of the Chinese."

"The Chinese ought to be our friends in this war, for we did so much for them when the other nations were after them. But England, Russia and the Japanese have bought her, body and soul, and now she is against us with all the rest."

"But we'll win out—we must win out!"

"Right you are! The Stars and Stripes forever!"

The conversation recorded above took place one spring morning of the year 1936.

For two years the United States—that vast territory which now embraces all of North America, from the Isthmus of Panama to Hudson Bay, and takes in all of the West Indies, Hawaii, the Philippines, and half a dozen other islands of the sea, as well as a corner of China and another corner of Japan—had been at peace with the world. We say peace. What we mean is, there was no war, but war talk was on every tongue.

In the past twenty-five years the country had prospered immensely. We now numbered over a hundred million of inhabitants, and nearly all of these were well-to-do and had money in the bank.

Jefferson McKinley Adams was President, and had been for six years, and under him were a standing army of five hundred thousand men, and a navy of five hundred of the best warships which human ingenuity could devise.

Many of the best of the warships had been turned out at the Standard Ship Yard at Bridgeport, which, up to a year before, had been under the personal supervision of Commodore David Pelham, the father of Oscar Pelham, just introduced. David Pelham had been a retired veteran of the Civil and the Spanish-American wars, and had followed his beloved wife to her grave, leaving Oscar alone in the world.

Oscar Pelham was a young man of nearly twenty, well-built and strong, with piercing black eyes and curly black hair.

At first he thought to follow his father into the navy, but he had a strong taste for electricity and mechanics generally, and he ended by entering the services of the ship building company, after spending three years at Edison's Electrical University at Llewellyn Park.

Oscar was a smart young man, and already many of his electric and other devices were beginning to attract attention. When the improved submarine torpedo-boat destroyer, Holland X., was building at Elizabethport he had gone to see her, and had come away much impressed by the novel construction of the craft.

"I'll build such a boat myself some day," he said to his boy friends, "only I'll make her better than anything afloat."

Some of his friends laughed at this, but others only smiled faintly. "Perhaps the boy is right," said one old machinist. "He had a smart father and a smart grandfather. Blood ought to tell."

And blood did tell, for, although only twenty years old, Oscar now had the whole run of the extensive shipyard and hardly any plan went through but what somebody came to him for his opinion on it.

Once Oscar disapproved of the plan of a new submarine boat, invented by an old war captain from Vermont.

"That boat will sink fast enough," he said. "But she won't come up."

The experts laughed at him and said he was mistaken. Then the boat was built. She sank on her first trial and blew up in her effort to raise herself.

After that Oscar Pelham's opinion counted for a good deal in all matters under consideration, so far as ship structure and the use of electricity went.

"Can't git around him," said George Dross, the oldest engineer in the yard. "He's got it all down on his finger tips. Him as tries ter corner him will git bit sure!"

The visit to the Holland X. had never left Oscar's mind. He remembered exactly how the submarine destroyer had been built and just how she was worked.

Once, when some of the naval vessels were at Newport, the Holland X. took a midnight trip among them, and Oscar was allowed on board.

The destroyer sank almost out of sight, and unknown to those on the big warships, passed completely around and under, first one vessel and then another.

"We could have blown every warship sky high!" said the inventor, but of this Oscar was doubtful. Yet he realized that the Holland X. was a grand boat and one calculated to do some terrific damage in a naval contest.

"But I'll build a better—wait and see," he said, over and over again, and when he was nineteen years of age he began to perfect the plans which had rested so long in his brain.

His boat was to be built of aluminum and steel—aluminum on account of its lightness and steel because of its strength. The craft was to be one hundred and fifteen feet long, sixteen feet wide, and eight to eleven feet six inches high. She was to be shaped like a stubby cigar and have three windows of glass on each side and one in front, and another in the stern. She was to have two small but exceedingly powerful screws, operated by an electric engine. She was to carry both natural and manufactured air, and had ample space for provisions and water, as well as ammunition, the latter to consist principally of torpedo tubes and dynamite bombs. She was to attain, under favorable circumstances, a speed of twenty-three knots an hour, and must work absolutely without noise, both while under water and while sailing over the surface.

Luckily for Oscar Pelham, his father had been rich, and upon the commodore's death, all the wealth went to the young inventor, to do with exactly as the young man saw fit. Several thousands of dollars were immediately spent upon a model of the Holland XI., as Oscar christened his craft, and this model was, one dark night, taken out on Long Island Sound for a trial.

No one was in the secret but Oscar and his particular friend, Andy Greggs, and it must be confessed that Andy was almost as anxious for success as the young inventor himself.

"If she runs all right, she'll be the biggest thing on the water," he declared.

"You ought to say, under the water," said Oscar.

The trial took the best part of the night and when it proved a perfect success Oscar Pelham could hardly contain himself.

"She'll be the submarine terror," he observed. "No warship, no matter how big she is, will be able to stand up against her secret attacks."

CHAPTER II.

FIRST BATTLE ON THE OCEAN.

The news that war had been declared against practically the whole civilized world was correct.

In a thousand ways Uncle Sam tried to settle the many existing troubles without an appeal to arms, and had failed in each and every instance.

Other nations looked with keen envy upon our growth and development.

"We must cut that nation down," they said. "If we do not it will, sooner or later, rule us all, commercially and otherwise."

Yet the United States had no intention of ruling any nation without the people's consent.

Freedom had been given to Cuba and the Philippines, and some years later these islands had begged to be admitted, first as territories and then as states.

They saw how much it would be to their advantage to form part of our glorious Union. They saw that the United States was destined to become the one great world power.

Even when this great war broke out—the like of which the world had never before witnessed—several large countries of South America, as well as several smaller countries of Central America, were knocking for admission into the Union. Brazil, Chili, Peru and Honduras were among those who wished to enter.

Mexico had come in through the solicitation of the people of Texas, and after her admission the bitter Mexican war of 1848 was forgotten.

And nothing was now heard of the contest against the Filipinos. Aguinaldo was dead, yet in the main square of Manila an imposing monument had been erected to this remarkable military personage who had done so much and yet so little for his countrymen.

The appeal to arms created a tremendous excitement, both in the cities and in the country places.

In New York the whole population went wild, and a grand "war march," as it was termed, took place. The city at that time was built up solid as far as Yonkers, and the marchers proceeded as far as that, while some of the columns went over the four bridges uniting New York and Brooklyn and the two bridges reaching from Manhattan Island to the New Jersey shore.

The decorations were magnificent, and Oscar Pelham and Andy Greggs came down from Bridgeport to see them. Banners were flung from the tops of all the big buildings, including the Empire, which was fifty-six stories high, and balloons were anchored a mile in the air, each ablaze with electric lights, turning night into day.

It was felt that the war would be carried on principally on the ocean, or rather, on the oceans, and for that purpose every available warship was put into service with all possible speed.

Enlistments in the navy were followed by enlistments in the army, until our soldiers and sailors numbered over a million men.

The soldiers were armed with the Miles-Gilford electric repeating rifles, which were known to shoot with great accuracy up to two thousand yards.

The rifles of the sharpshooters were fitted with telescopes, and many of the sharpshooters could pick off an enemy at a mile distance with ease.

It was felt that the combined navies of the world would come first to our Eastern seacoast, and the coast defenses were put in the best possible condition without delay.

The forts at Sandy Hook and on Long Island were armed with the latest improved Hotchkiss bomb guns, which could carry projectiles weighing a thousand pounds a distance of sixteen to eighteen miles.

But it was felt that these fortifications were not sufficient, and others were speedily projected, taking in the whole coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, as well as Cuba, Porto Rico and other islands in that vicinity.

Our naval vessels, as said before, were as good as any on the face of the globe, and included the submarine boat, Holland, the one first accepted by the government in 1900, and also the Hollands III., V., VI., IX. and X., the II., IV., VII. and VIII. having been destroyed or condemned.

Much was expected of the Holland boats, especially in night work, when they might run out to any foreign warship and wreck her with one or more powerful torpedoes attached to her hull.

Those who managed the submarine vessels were enthusiastic about them, and had good reason to be.

One day Andy Greggs came into the shipyard wild with excitement.

"Something awful has happened!" he cried, as soon as he met Oscar.

"What is it?" demanded the young inventor.

"The Holland I. has been blown up into a million pieces!"

"Andy, you can't mean it."

"It's true."

"Who did it, some of the foreign warships?"

"No, one mean, miserable skunk of a man did it all."

"And who was he?"

"An Italian named Gabretti. He was employed on the boat as an engineer. The foreign governments bought him up, it's said, for a hundred thousand dollars, and he blew her up by connecting an electric battery with the torpedoes she was carrying."

"And were the crew killed?"

"To a man. Gabretti had just time enough to get into a steam launch when the Holland sailed skyward. The steam launch was followed by the cruiser Massachusetts, but escaped in the darkness, and it is surmised that the Italian went on board one of the foreign warships cruising around the Atlantic Ocean."

This news, startling as it was, was true.

Bitter was the denunciation of the Italian engineer, who was a naturalized citizen, and who had thus proved a traitor to his country, and the government immediately offered a reward of fifty thousand dollars for his capture, dead or alive.

"I'd like to earn that reward," said Andy Greggs.

"I would like to capture him," returned Oscar Pelham. "The traitor! He ought to be tortured to death!" Oscar came from a long line of true-blue patriots, and to his mind a traitor was the worst thing to be imagined.

The loss of the Holland I was a sore one for the United States, for during the past year England, Germany and France had constructed submarine boats of more or less efficacy, and it was now felt that we were at a disadvantage so far as this class of vessel was concerned.

But worse news followed. In two days came word that all the other submarine craft were either blown up or seriously damaged.

Soon came the news that a great fleet of foreign warships had been sighted off the coast of Nova Scotia. The guns at the forts in this vicinity had tried to reach the flotilla, but failed, for the foreign vessels had kept well out to sea.

The foreigners were headed southward, and it was felt that they would probably attack Boston or New York.

The foreign vessels numbered at least fifteen and to combat them the United States sent out twelve of their best warships, including the new Columbia, an armored cruiser of eighteen thousand tons displacement and carrying a battery of twelve twenty-pounders and sixteen twenty-inch guns.

The foreign fleet was sighted off Montauk Point and it was seen to head directly for New York Harbor.

It was on a rainy Saturday that the two fleets met, twenty miles off Sandy Hook.

The foreign ships had tried to enter New York Harbor under cover of the darkness the night before, but the powerful searchlights at Sandy Hook had exposed them, and one ship had been sunk by the guns from the forts and another had struck a submerged mine and been literally split in twain.

It was thirteen vessels to twelve, and the fight opened with a terrific bombardment from both sides which lasted for nearly an hour. The din could be plainly heard in New York, where it sounded like rolling thunder, and the top of every tall building was covered with spectators, with first-class telescopes, watching the magnificent contest.

At the end of an hour it looked as if the Americans had the better of the fight and those on shore were jubilant in consequence.

"We'll lick 'em out of their boots!" shouted more than one old veteran. "It's America against the world, and we are bound to come out on top!"

At this time but one American vessel, the Chicago, had sunk. Of the foreigners, a German and a French vessel were blown up, while a large Russian man-of-war and an Italian cruiser were in flames from stem to stern.

But now the fortunes of war turned swiftly.

For some unknown reason, the French and the German submarine boats which had accompanied the expedition had been delayed in getting to the battle ground, having run foul of some wreckage off the coast of Long Island.

Now they came up, and after some minute directions from the admiral in command of the Allies, as the foreigners were termed, both boats sank promptly out of sight.

It was afterward learned that the French submarine vessel could do next to nothing. She tried to sink the Indiana, but was promptly discovered and two fifteen-inch shells soon put her out of existence forever.

Not so, however, with the German craft, a boat fully the equal of any of the ill-fated Hollands. She came up silently under three of the American warships, and half an hour later every one of those gallant cruisers was wrecked and hundreds of those on board were killed.

The shock was so unexpected that the Americans for the moment knew not what to do. Then another ship was blown up, and the few which remained had to withdraw to New York Harbor, where they were under the protection of the guns of the numerous forts.

CHAPTER III.

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY.

"Andy, I am going to see the Secretary of the Navy, and at once."

"About your submarine boat, Oscar?"

"Yes."

"I thought you had written to him about it."

"So I have, but the Old Harry knows what has become of the letter."

"More than likely they thought your scheme that of a wild-brained inventor and cast the letter aside."

"So I've been thinking. I start for Washington to-morrow."

"Want me to go along?"

"No, I want you to remain here and take charge of that model, which is in the storeroom at my boarding-house. If I telegraph to you, you come on with the model, at once."

So it was agreed, and that night saw Oscar Pelham whirling toward the capital at the rate of eighty-five miles an hour, on what was known as the Congressional Limited.

This train was a great favorite with politicians and on the cars Oscar met many men who had known his father.

One in particular, Senator Forbish, from New York, became interested in the young inventor, and asked him why he was making the trip.

"Going to try for a position in the navy, to follow in the footsteps of your father?" he questioned.

"Yes and no," answered Oscar. "I will enter the navy if they will allow me to do so in my own way."

"Then you are particular. Perhaps you wish the command of a ship." And the senator smiled pleasantly.

"I do wish the command of a ship—but the ship must be of my own designing."

Senator Forbish could readily see that Oscar was not joking, and he asked the young man to explain himself, which Oscar did readily, for he knew the senator was a power, both in military and in naval circles.

"And you say this boat will really work?" he questioned.

"Yes. The model worked perfectly when we tried her in Long Island Sound."

"Such a submarine boat would be far in advance of the others which we have lost."

"She would be, and that would mean that she would also be superior to the submarine boats owned by our foreign foes."

"Then you must press this matter upon Secretary Short by all means."

"I shall do my best. But he may not be willing to listen to me. I understand he is very busy."

"He is busy, but I will give you a letter to him which will insure you an audience."

The senator was as good as his word. There was a stenographer and typewriter on the train and he dictated a letter and signed it without delay.

When Oscar reached Washington he found the entire city in a state of suppressed excitement. The destruction of the American warships off New York Harbor was on everybody's lips, and many predicted that the United States would soon be at the mercy of her foreign foes.

"And they will show us no mercy," they declared. "They are too anxious to see us broken to pieces. England will retake Canada, Mexico will go to Spain, Russia will cry for Alaska, with its gold, while France and Germany will want a slice of the Eastern coast and China and Japan a slice of the Western."

When Oscar arrived at the office of the Secretary of the Navy he found the cabinet officials busy in the extreme. Naval officers, politicians and citizens looking after contracts filled the rooms and corridors, and clerks and messengers were coming and going constantly.

"What is it you want?" demanded a clerk, as he met the young inventor at the inquiry desk.

"I wish to see Secretary Short," was the answer.

"On what business?"

"That is a private matter."

"The secretary is very busy to-day; better call to-morrow."

"I think he will see me." And Oscar handed out his card.

"Hum! Does he know you?"

"No."

"Then I think you are mistaken. Nearly all strangers must first go and see one or the other of his assistants."

"Here is a letter of introduction from Senator Forbish," continued Oscar, with a quiet smile.

The face of the clerk immediately changed color.

"Oh—er—of course that makes a difference, Mr. Pelham. I will take your card and the letter to the secretary at once."

The clerk dove through a swinging door and was gone the best part of ten minutes.

"Secretary Short will see you at half-past three," he announced. "Be on time if you want to make sure of your interview, and boil your business down."

"I'll be on time, never fear."

Promptly at half-past three Oscar was admitted to the private office of the Secretary of the United States navy.

It was a large apartment, handsomely fitted up, and on the walls hung numerous charts of our coast defenses and pictures of war vessels. In one corner rested several models of ships, including one of the ill-fated Holland X.

"Well, young man, what can I do for you?" asked the secretary, as he motioned the young inventor to a chair.

"Secretary Short, you can give me the opportunity to destroy some of the foreign warships which are battling against us," answered Oscar.

"Eh? Er—what's that?" said the secretary, who feared he had not heard aright.

"To be brief, sir, I am the son of the late Commodore David Pelham, whom you, I think, knew fairly well. I am a practical electrician and inventor. I have worked around shipyards for a number of years. I have invented a submarine torpedo-boat, somewhat on the lines of the late Holland, but with numerous changes, which I know will be beneficial. I want to build this ship for the government and I want to be placed in command of her when she is built."

The Secretary of the Navy stared at Oscar in amazement. "What, you! Why, really you are—a very young man to talk in this fashion."

"That is true, sir. But if I prove that I have a boat superior to any of the Hollands, will you take me up?"

"Certainly; we want the best ships, submarine and otherwise, that money can buy. Expense is no object. But I have no time to waste now on experiments. The war is on; we have already suffered a tremendous loss, as you must know."

"I have a working model. At this time to-morrow, if you'll say the word, I'll have that model at the government experimental station and I will show you how perfectly it works."

"You are positive you have a good thing?" And the secretary looked sharply at the young inventor, as if to read his innermost thoughts.

"I am, sir."

"Then I will be at the station to see your model work, at five o'clock, to-morrow."

CHAPTER IV.

BLOWING UP OF THE TIEN-TSIN.

The Secretary of the Navy was as good as his word. He was on hand five minutes before five, and Oscar arrived ten minutes earlier, accompanied by Andy Greggs, who had had the model shipped on by express, in a stout coffin-like box.

The government experiment station boasted of a large pond of water, where all sorts of models were tried and experiments made.

In the presence of the secretary and two of his assistants the model was produced.

At this moment the President of the United States, Jefferson McKinley Adams, a descendant of John Adams, the second President, came in to see what was going on, having heard that something unusual was in the air.

"We need such a boat, if it will work, now the Hollands are no more," he murmured to the Secretary of the Navy.

"Wait—we will see if this is all right or a humbug," answered Secretary Short.

The model was placed on a stand and Oscar gave a little lecture concerning the working parts and what the craft was designed to do.

The model went to the bottom of the basin and arose without an effort. Then it went down as far as desired, ran forward, backward, and then turned in circles right and left. The screws were next shifted slightly and the model went forward in saw-tooth fashion, first up and then down, but all under water.

"Wonderful!" murmured the President. "The old Hollands could not do that."

"He has certainly solved the science of under-water navigation," answered the Secretary of the Navy.

A model of a warship was now placed in the basin, at one end. Then the model of the submarine craft was set in motion to place a torpedo under the warship's keel. The work was performed with great accuracy and it was shown how easily the warship could be destroyed and how quickly the other boat could get away without being discovered.

"Good! It is perfect!" cried the Secretary of the Navy. "But how about air for your crew while under water?"

Oscar then went into the details of his scheme for storing air and for manufacturing it as well. Everybody listened with close attention.

"How much will your craft cost to build?" was the next question asked.

"Two hundred thousand dollars," was the answer. "For into that construction must go the best of everything."

Those who had witnessed the exhibition consulted together for a few minutes.

"How long will she take to build?"

"Give me that sum and I will build her in three months; give me a hundred thousand dollars more and I will have her ready for service in two months."

"You shall have your answer to-morrow noon," said the Secretary of the Navy.

The night to follow was an anxious one, both for Oscar Pelham and his faithful friend, Andy Greggs.

Would the government accept the offer?

At ten the next morning came a telephone message from the Navy Department.

"We are willing to appropriate half a million dollars if that submarine boat, to be called the new Holland, can be built inside of one month."

Even Oscar was staggered at this.

"A month!" he gasped. "But I'll do it if I have to set every shipyard and every steel plant at work to push it through."

For thirty days Oscar Pelham hardly ate, drank or slept.

He was here, there and everywhere, now inspecting this work done, now that work done, and anon sending telegrams and telephone messages in every direction.

Some refused to do any work for him, thinking him mad. But when his orders were indorsed by the Navy Department, owners of shipyards and steel plants quickly changed their minds.

Work went on night and day, without interruption, and on the afternoon of the twenty-ninth day the new Holland was slid into the waters of New York bay and a telegram was sent to Secretary Short that the vessel was ready for service.

In the meantime the war had gone on and another naval battle had been fought in Cuban waters. Here an Italian cruiser had been sunk by the gunboat Yankee Doodle, but the Americans had lost four of their old-fashioned types of war vessel.

It was reported that a flotilla of sixteen foreign warships was in the vicinity of Cuba, and that soon there would be an active bombardment of the whole Cuban coast.

"If they capture Cuba they will use the island as a base of supplies," said the Secretary of the Navy, "and they will be able to land millions of soldiers there. We must stop this movement."

Ten first-class warships had been dispatched to the seat of trouble, and now the new Holland was ordered thither, after a trial off the New Jersey coast to see that the new vessel worked perfectly.

The crew of the new Holland, or Holland XI., as she was officially registered, consisted of ten all told. Oscar was placed in supreme command, with a rank in the navy as captain. Next to him came Andy Greggs, as first lieutenant. The head engineer was George Dross, the old shipbuilder, who had stood by Oscar when he was building his model at Bridgeport.

The Holland was stored with provisions and fresh air and a number of powerful torpedoes, along with a large amount of other explosives.

"Good-bye to land," said Oscar, as he stepped on board. "We are running a great risk, Andy. Perhaps we will never see home again."

"I don't care. Hurrah for Uncle Sam!" responded the first lieutenant, recklessly.

Soon the Holland—we shall at all times call her by her simple name—was moving southward at a lively rate of speed.

As there was no need to draw on the air in the reservoirs the boat was kept on the surface of the ocean, skimming along like some monster sea-fowl.

Four days later Captain Oscar Pelham was able to report to Commodore Garrison, in command of the fleet in Cuban waters.

Another great naval battle was expected daily and Commodore Garrison was glad to see the Holland put in an appearance.

"I have heard that there is one monster Chinese armored cruiser coming up here from the coast of Brazil," said the commodore. "She is one of the swiftest and most dangerous craft in the world. She is named the Tien-Tsin. If you can blow her up it will be a great work accomplished."

"We shall do our best," replied Captain Oscar promptly.

He passed the word around and the Holland ran along the Eastern coast of Cuba, on the lookout for the Tien-Tsin.

Soon several warships were sighted and two days later the Tien-Tsin hove in sight and began to bombard the Cuban city of Baracoa.

It was the intention of the Chinese commander to make the city surrender and then land an army of three thousand Celestials in Cuba, as the beginning of a great command of invasion.

"The Tien-Tsin is in sight," cried Andy, who was the first to sight the craft.

Captain Oscar waited long enough to confirm the news, then gave orders that the Holland XI. be sunk immediately.

Down went the torpedo-boat destroyer until fully twenty-five feet of water floated over her.

The Chinese cruiser had stopped her powerful engines and lay motionless on the ocean, while she poured shot and shell into the city, four miles away, to the terror of the Cubans, who were fleeing in all directions.

Swiftly but silently the new Holland crept up until almost under the keel of the Celestials' warship.

Then a large torpedo was sent forth and fastened to the warship's broad bottom.

To the torpedo was attached a clock-like arrangement, and this was set at the five-minute limit.

"Now, away!" cried Captain Oscar, when the work was done. "Dross, crowd on all speed!"

And, like a thing of life, the Holland darted off in the direction where the American fleet lay, miles off.

One minute passed—two—three—four—and those on the Holland watched their watches anxiously.

"We will ascend!" cried Captain Oscar, and up shot the boat to the surface.

Four minutes and a half—three-quarters—fifty seconds—fifty-five seconds—six—seven—eight—nine——

Crash! Bang! Boom!

It was as if heaven and earth were split in twain. First there came a flash as of lightning out of the depths of the ocean, followed by a grinding, ripping, sucking noise, and then up went the monster Chinese cruiser, blown into millions of fragments. With the wreckage went soldiers and sailors, guns, ammunition, spars, everything, straight into the sky! It was a sight as awful as it was amusing.

"She's gone forever!" cried Captain Oscar, hoarsely. "Our work has proved a perfect success. The new Holland is the most dangerous warship ever constructed."

"You are right," answered his first lieutenant. "Those Chinese——"

He got no further, for he had glanced up in the sky, and now saw something strange and uncanny approaching. It was a gigantic dynamite shell, thrown by a French cruiser, which had crept up behind them unawares.

The shell was aimed straight for the Holland, and if it struck the submarine boat it would blow her up as effectively as she had blown up the Tien-Tsin!

CHAPTER V.

PRISONERS OF THE SEA.

"We are lost!"

"That shell will blow us to atoms!"

Such were some of the cries which arose from those on the new Holland when they saw the shell thrown by the French cruiser whirling swiftly toward them.

In an instant all was wild excitement and the face of Andy Greggs grew pale as death.

But one person on the submarine craft was cool, and that was Oscar Pelham.

As he saw the shell approaching he stepped to the rear end of the tiny enclosed deck of which the Holland boasted.

Here was a hidden keyboard, connected by electricity with the moving power of the strange craft.

He touched one of the tiny steel buttons.

"Hold fast!" he cried, and as everybody clutched the railing or threw himself flat, the Holland fairly jerked forward, rising two feet higher than she had been lying, by the action of the sudden spurt. Then she continued to go ahead.

Zip! Bang!

Down came the shell from the French cruiser in the exact spot where the Holland had been lying. It sent the water flying in all directions, while the noise of the explosion was deafening.

The submarine torpedo-boat destroyer had gotten away a distance of a hundred yards, and some of the fragments of the shell rained down upon the deck like hail.

The forward rush had made the Holland ship considerable water, and for the instant it looked as if the submarine craft would be swamped.

The French cruiser was coming closer, and now another shell was hurled forth, but this flew wide of the mark.

"We must go down," said Captain Oscar, and at once those on deck tumbled into the interior of the submarine boat. Then the steel hatch was closed, the railing sank out of sight, and the new Holland sunk beneath the surface of the ocean.

By examination it was found that the boat contained six inches of water, and this was immediately forced out by the electric pump. Then Oscar entered the engine room and held a consultation with George Dross.

"Are we safe in descending twenty-five feet in these waters?" he asked.

A chart was examined and it was found that they might descend forty feet without danger of running aground, providing they kept in the old channel.

"Then put on all speed, descend thirty feet, and bring up behind that French cruiser," was the young captain's order.

"You will sink her?" questioned Andy.

"If we can."

"But the commodore's orders——"

"Orders from the Secretary of the Navy are to sink any foreign vessel that opens fire on us. The government has half a million dollars locked up in this vessel, and Uncle Sam doesn't intend to lose her."

No more was said, and soon the new Holland was gliding through the ocean with the rapidity and silence of some monstrous sea serpent.

While she was thus moving Oscar had the crew arrange another torpedo, similar to that which had blown up the Tien-Tsin.

He remained at the side window nearest to the front of the submarine boat, watching for anything unusual which might occur.

As they moved on in a large semi-circle a sight met his gaze which was truly horrible.

They passed through the wreckage of the big Chinese cruiser, and on every side he saw the torn and mutilated bodies of the Chinese sailors and soldiers, some dead and some drowning, sinking slowly to the bottom of the ocean.

One poor wretch made a mad clutch at the glass window as it passed him and glared fiercely into Oscar's face.

The sight made Oscar shudder and brought to him a sense of how horrible this fearful war was to be.

But now was no time to think of these things.

The French cruiser had noted the disappearance of the submarine boat and her commander was doing his best to get out of danger.

He had crowded on all steam and felt that it would be impossible for any submarine boat to catch the Republique, as his craft was named.

He did not know that the new Holland was one of the fastest ships afloat—much faster, in fact, than any submarine craft built up to that time.

Although it was daylight, he kept a powerful searchlight at work, trying in vain to locate the Holland XI. under that rolling cover of greenish-blue waves.

But here he again failed, for the Holland kept too far below the surface to be thus located.

At last Captain Oscar saw that they were less than fifty yards behind the Republique.

Both vessels were going at their topmost speed, and thus the pursuit was a highly dangerous one.

The new Holland was up on a level with the Frenchman's keel, and should the speed of the cruiser slacken suddenly the submarine craft would surely crash into her with disastrous effect.

"Get ready to throw out that torpedo," ordered the young captain of the submarine destroyer, and his crew obeyed without delay.

In a few seconds more they were directly under the Frenchman's keel, and then the torpedo was brought out, ready to be adjusted.

At that moment something unlooked for occurred, something which nearly brought the new Holland to an end then and there.

In her anxiety to get away from the torpedo destroyer those on the Republique had run close to a stretch of land on the Cuban coast which hid from view a bay half a mile in diameter.