JACK TURNED HIS WHIP FROM THE BACKS OF THE HORSES AND LASHED OUT AT THE WOLVES.
THE BOY ALLIES IN THE BALTIC
CHAPTER I.
ON A RAID.
“Submerge to five fathoms, Mr. Templeton!”
The speaker was Lord Hastings, commander ofthe British submarine D-17.
Jack Templeton, a British youth and first officerof the under-sea craft, repeated the command forwhich he had been waiting now for some moments.
“Mr. Chadwick!”
Lord Hastings’ voice again.
“Sir!”
A third figure, standing upon the bridge—nowenclosed as the submarine sank from the surface—cameto attention before his commander. FrankChadwick, an American youth and second officerof the vessel, awaited instructions.
“Everything shipshape?” questioned his commandersharply.
“Yes, sir. Engine-room trouble all repaired,sir.”
“Lookout posted forward?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Very well. Ten fathoms, Mr. Templeton!”
Lord Hastings turned from the periscope,through which he had been peering, and for a momentgazed thoughtfully at his two young officersbefore speaking. At last he said:
“Unless something goes wrong we will be in Heligolandwithin two hours!”
A startling statement, this, to one who did notknow the nature of the man who made it; for itwas a fact known to all the world that Heligoland,the great German fortress that guarded the approachto the few miles of German seacoast, wasone of the strongest in the world—perhaps as wellfortified as Gibraltar itself, and considered by navalexperts equally as impregnable.
Apparently the D-17 was bent upon a perilousventure.
Such, indeed, was the case. The D-17, sistership to the D-16, in which Lord Hastings and histwo young officers had seen many exciting adventures,as related in “The Boy Allies with theTerror of the Seas,” had left the coast of Englandthe