“What’s your speed?” came again the voice through the megaphone.
“Right!” came the reply. “Follow us at full speed.”
The blue water creamed at the _Minerva’s_ forefoot as her speed developed. She drew away rapidly, and the _Penguin_ slowly and sulkily began to move, making a huge circle to starboard.
When she got into line the _Minerva_ was a good two miles ahead.
Said Harman, for the Captain was speechless:
“I call this playing it pretty low down. _Jumping_ Jeehoshophat, but we’ll be had before Sprengel! He won’t rub his hands--oh, no! I guess he won’t rub his hands! And the old _Penguin_ is going as if she liked it. Ain’t there no gunpowder aboard to blow a hole in her skin an’ sink her? And that durned British cruiser as tight fixed to us as though she was towing us with a forty-foot hawser. I reckon if I had some poison I’d pour it out and drink it. I would that! I feel that way low down I’d pour it out and drink it.”
“Oh, _shut_ your head!” said the Captain. “You carry on like an old woman with the stomach ache. We’re caught and we’re being lugged along by the police officer, and there’s no use in clutching at the railings or making a disturbance. The one good thing is that we haven’t any of those chaps on board us, sitting with fixed bayonets on the saloon hatch and we in the saloon. The first thing to be done is to steal as much distance out of her as we can without her kicking.”
He went to the engine-room speaking tube:
“Below there, heave any muck you think likely to make smoke in the furnaces; there’s a lot of old rubber and canvas waste on the cable deck. I’ll tell Mr. Harman to have it sent down to you. I want to ’pear as if we were doin’ more than our best--yes, we’re caught and bein’ led to port, and we mean to have a try to get loose; keep a good head of steam, and keep your eye on the engine-room telegraph. I’ll be altering the speed now and then.”
He sent Harman to do what he said; then he stood watching the distant _Minerva_. She was now about two and a quarter miles ahead. The two vessels were going at about equal speed, with the balance perhaps in favour of the _Minerva_. He ordered the engines to half speed, and kept them so for a couple of minutes, then put them on to full speed again. The result of this proceeding was an almost imperceptible gain on the part of the cruiser.