"Ach, now comes it!" exclaimed Poffer the next instant. He wrote rapidly and then handed the message to Jack. The wireless boy read:
"Dutton, commanding His Majesty's ship _Berwick_."
"I'll take it forward right away!" exclaimed Jack. "You listen with all your ears for any more messages, Hans."
"You bet you my life I will undt den some," Hans promised. "Vot you dink, dey shood us up, Jack?"
"I don't know. I suppose if we don't heave to, they will," said the wireless boy as he hurried off.
"Chust as I thought," declared Captain Rollok, after he had read the message.
"Shall I tell Hans to send back word we'll stop?" asked Jack.
"Stop! I vouldn't stop for der whole British navy," declared Captain Rollok vehemently.
He stepped to the engine room telegraph and set it violently over to "Full speed ahead." Then he picked up the engine-room telephone and gave orders to pile on every ounce of steam possible. The great ship quivered and then sprang forward like a grayhound from a leash. Clouds of black smoke rose from her funnels, deluging the decks with ashes as force draught was applied to the furnaces.
Jack hastened back to the wireless room. He found Poffer, pop-eyed and frightened looking.
"There's another cruiser coming up on the other side!" he exclaimed. "I just heard her talking to the _Berwick_."
"That's nice," commented Jack, as Bill Raynor and de Garros appeared in the doorway.
"Hullo, Bill," he continued. "You'll have a chance to be under fire now."
"What do you mean?" demanded young Raynor.
"Surely it is that the captain will stop?" asked the French aviator.
"Stop nothing," rejoined Jack. "He doesn't appear to care what he risks, so long as he saves his ship."
"I thought I felt her speeding up," said Bill. "So he's going to cut and run for it?"
"That's the size of it," responded Jack, while the Frenchman shrugged his shoulders.
"They are not understandable, these Germans," he commented.
"Here comes it anudder message," struck in Hans, holding up his hand to enjoin silence.
They all looked over his shoulder as he wrote rapidly.
"Your last warning. Heave to or take the consequences."
It was signed as before by the commander of the _Berwick_.
"My friends, this captain had better heed that warning," said de Garros. "Englishmen are not in zee habit of what zee call 'bluffing.'"