The Pirate Submarine

IN spite of her premature departure, the _Alerte_ was well found for her work. Everything that Trevorrick and Pengelly could provide had been placed on board, or had been arrang...

"I MUST hand her over to her new owner before the end of the present month, Gerald," declared Rollo Vyse, owner of the thirty-five-feet motor-yacht _Ibex_, to his chum Gerald Br...

AT four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day on which the _Mendez Nunez_ was towed into Falmouth harbour, Gerald Broadmayne, "clothed and in his right mind" (to be precise,...

EXACTLY three weeks after the capture of the _Mendez Nunez_ the _Alerte_ arrived off the mouth of the Wad-el-Abuam, a small river flowing into the Atlantic a few miles south of...

"'Fraid we've missed the _Candide_, curse her," said the pirate captain. "We'll have to keep a look-out for something else. I've warned the operator. Well, take over now, Pengel...

"No, sir," replied Broadmayne; for now that the _Alerte_ had swung through eight points, her quickfirer could be seen from the bridge of the _Canvey_. "The poor bounders have go...

JUST before sunset the _Alerte_ entered the Chenal de Four, a dangerous and intricate passage between Ushant and the Brittany coast. Not only does the water on either side of th...

"Steady on," replied Vyse cautiously. "Supposing we get on board without being spotted: what then? Can you speak Spanish; I can't. The blighters will take us for pirates--I don'...

"Skulking again!" he shouted. "Here, you son of a horse-marine, show a leg! And you, you limb of Satan, it's the like o' you as gets the likes o' me into trouble. On deck with y...

Steering like a dray, since the destruction of the rudder-head had left her with only her twin screws to manoeuvre with, the German liner forged ahead, turned eight degrees to s...

Thus spoke Tom Trevorrick, senior partner of the firm of Trevorrick, Pengelly & Co., shipbreakers, of Polkyll, near Falmouth. He was a tall, powerfully-built man, standing six f...

"SHEER off!" shouted Captain Cain, leaning over the bridge-rails and directing the full blast of his powerful voice upon the still unknown craft alongside. "Stand clear; we're g...

"HERE'S a fine lash-up!" remarked Broadmayne to his chum. "We look like getting it in the neck. I won't give much for our chances if our destroyers take up the chase. Cain, or w...

It was in the forenoon watch--seven bells, to be exact--of the day following the pirate captain's visit to Devonport. The _Alerte_, ploughing along at an easy five knots, was ab...

THAT same afternoon, there being a full moon on the previous day, the spring tide was at its highest at about six o'clock. The conditions being favourable, R 81 was moved into t...

FOR two hours more the _Alerte_ held on a westerly course through a blinding fog before Captain Cain resolved upon a plan of action. Generally capable of forming a swift and wor...

DEAR BROADMAYNE,--I suppose by the time you receive this you will have had a hand in sending the _Alerte_ to her long, last home. Really, I don't envy your job, but it will be i...

THE _Surcouf_, for such she was, was approaching at twelve knots. She was a two-funnelled craft of about 3000 tons, painted black with white upperworks. Occasionally visible bet...

He was a short, slim-built man with a totally disproportionate sense of his own importance. Thirty years of Civil Service life had got him into a rut. It mattered little how he...

"She's been reporting her movements long enough," said Captain Cain. "We'll see what we can do. We'll have to shift from here in any case. We'll find a suitable cubby-hole somew...

The _Alerte_ was pitching as she faced the long Atlantic swell after crossing the bar in pursuit of the _Bronx City_. A few--a very few--of the crew were sober; the majority wer...

THROUGHOUT the three days during which the sea was raging furiously in the grip of the terrific gale, the _Alerte_ remained submerged. Occasionally the giant seas sweeping over...

"She's the one we want," he shouted, in order to make himself heard above the hiss of escaping steam. "Mind how you close her. Examine her papers, and if you find anything of th...

THE decoy-ship _Canvey_ lay at anchor off St. Vincent, whither she had gone to replenish her oil-fuel tanks. Both officers and men were growing tired of the seemingly interminab...