Navy Boys Behind the Big Guns | Page 4

eyes. His interest seemed fixed on a point along the face of the dam
just where a thin slice of water ran over the flashboard into the rocky
bed of the river.
CHAPTER II
THE STRANGER
For the life of him Phil Morgan could not have told why he was so
keenly interested in that stranger. He could not see the man's face; he
did not presume it was anybody he had ever seen before; nor had he
any reason to be suspicious of the man.
Nevertheless he felt a little thrill as he first caught sight of the stranger,

and this feeling spurred his exclamation to Torry, which lead the others'
attention to him.
After they had all seen the man, Phil added: "Pull her down. Let's see
what he is up to."
Torrance stopped the automobile. His chum was their acknowledged
leader in most things, and all the other Navy boys were used to obeying
Phil Morgan's mandates without much question. As told in the former
books of this series, Morgan was an observant and level-headed youth,
and his friends might have followed a much more dangerous leader in
both work and play.
The four boys, at that time all under eighteen years of age, had begun
their first enlistment in the Navy several months before the United
States got into the war. They spent some months in the training camp at
Saugarack, on the New England coast.
The Government commissioned new craft of all kinds as rapidly as
they could be obtained, and was obliged to man some of them partly
with youths who had not yet finished their preliminary training ashore.
Phil Morgan and his friends had made rapid progress in their studies
and the drills, and they were lucky enough to be assigned to the same
ship. This was the destroyer Colodia, one of the newest of her class, a
fast ship of a thousand tons' burden. She made two cruises, both
crammed full of excitement and adventure; and the story of these
cruises is related in the first volume of the series, entitled "Navy Boys
After the Submarines; Or, Protecting the Giant Convoy."
In this first narrative of their adventures in the United States Navy, Phil
had a very thrilling experience. He fell overboard from his ship and was
picked up by the German U-boat No. 812.
After the conclusion of the destroyer's second cruise the four chums
from Seacove were enabled to spend a week at home. Returning to the
port in which they had been instructed to join the Colodia the evening
before she again was to sail, the four chums were held up by a burning

railroad bridge, which had been set on fire by German agents.
It looked as though they would be unable to reach the Colodia on time.
This event would be a very serious matter, for the naval authorities
frown upon any tardiness of enlisted men in returning from shore leave.
Besides, the boys particularly desired to be aboard the Colodia during
her coming cruise.
The second volume of the series opened with this situation. The boys
made the acquaintance of an influential man, Mr. Alonzo Minnette,
who was likewise a passenger on the stalled train. And he made it
possible for the four apprentice seamen to reach their ship in time.
In this second volume entitled: "Navy Boys Chasing a Sea Raider; Or,
Landing a Million Dollar Prize," the four young members of the
Colodia's crew, whose adventures we are following, had many thrilling
experiences. In the end, the destroyer, by a ruse, captured the _Graf von
Posen_, a noted sea raider, and Whistler and his chums are allowed to
board her as part of the prize crew.
The boys were particularly interested in the cargo of the raider, for Mr.
Minnette had promised them a thousand dollars to divide among them
if they discovered aboard the raider the treasure of the Borgias, a
collection of precious stones, that the captain of the Graf von Posen
had taken from an Italian merchant ship which had been captured and
sunk by the Germans.
Naturally the Navy boys were interested in having others join the Navy;
and Hans Hertig, whom they found at home visiting his mother, was
particularly anxious to get some young men, who were working in
Elmvale and who came of German stock like himself, to enlist and
show their patriotism and love for the country of their birth.
"Say! what do you suppose is the matter with that chap?" Frenchy
demanded at last in his rather high, penetrating voice.
Instantly the man in the bushes turned and saw the automobile. Like a
flash he settled down in his tracks and disappeared. One moment he

was a plain figure standing out against the background of the dam; the