“Jack, I do believe they are going in today to engage the Turkish forts!” exclaimed Amos, after taking a good look around at the stirring picture.
The sun, not far above the horizon, shone upon the glistening sea, and in almost every quarter the boys could see war vessels moving steadily in the direction of the land ahead. There were battleships, super-dreadnaughts, cruisers, torpedo-boat destroyers and dispatch boats, all stripped for action and looking in grim earnest as they moved along in seemingly endless procession.
“I’m a little inclined to say the same thing myself,” Jack announced. “But no matter whether it happens or not we are in great luck to be able to set eyes on a glorious picture like this.”
“I’ll never forget it if I live to the age of Methuselah!”
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 affirmed Amos. “Just see how the mosquito craft dodge around, and serve to protect the big ships from any sort of torpedo attack. They must be on the watch all the time, because even a giant super-dreadnaught would go down like a stone if struck from a submarine.”
“I hope the Thunderer isn’t doomed to wind up that way, then,” remarked Jack. “With something like a thousand men aboard, we would have a mighty small chance to swim clear of the wreck, and might be sucked down when she sank. But they’re not depending so much on torpedoes out here as floating mines.”
“That’s what the lieutenant told us when on the destroyer,” said Amos. “It seems that there is always a swift current or tide flowing on the surface from out of the straits. By setting floating mines free above the Narrows, the German engineers, who are helping their allies, the Turks, in this campaign, can send them down upon the battle fleet as it works in the straits.”
“Those are what they call contact mines, I reckon, Jack?”
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“Yes, they have triggers projecting from them, and contact with the side of a warship causes the explosion. They’ve already caused a whole lot of trouble, and several big war vessels have gone down in the straits through their work.”
“Then, besides, there have been heaps of regular mines, to be fired by electricity,” Amos went on to say. “The Allies have small boats called mine sweepers that use a sort of net, and drag for these mines. They’ve cleared most of them out of the first five miles of the straits, I understand.”
“Speaking about submarines,” Jack remarked, “the Germans don’t happen to be the only ones that have them. The lieutenant told us about a British submersible that dived under all the rows of mines in the Narrows, and reached the Sea of Marmora, where for several days it kicked up a great row, sinking several Turkish transports, one or two warships, and even bombarding the docks at Constantinople, trying to destroy, they say, the bridge across which so much of their supplies come to the city.”
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“If that account is all true,” declared Amos, “that was a feat of daring unequalled in this whole war, according to my way of thinking. The commander of that undersea boat will get the Victoria Cross, you can bet.”
The boys were about this time informed they could have breakfast, since everything was being hurried on that morning because there was stern business ahead.
They met several of the officers in the mess-room, who greeted them in the most friendly way. They had heard enough of the boys’ story to understand that the two young Americans were a brave lot, and had actually alone and single-handed captured the notorious gun-runner, Captain Zenos, together with his entire crew of seven men.
The boat had been sent somewhere to be relieved of her dangerous cargo, which in turn would be utilized against the Turks. Later on that same powerboat was likely to become a mine-sweeper, for which service the craft was admirably fitted. So that, after all, Jack and Amos had
[93]
 been instrumental in adding to the Allied fleet by one useful unit.
By the time breakfast had been dispatched the sound of heavy firing brought the two boys out on deck in a hurry, eager to witness whatever went on.
“They’re engaging the forts at long range,” said Amos, immediately, as he saw a volume of smoke shoot out from a battleship a mile away, and almost immediately heard the awful crash of the big gun.
“Yes, miles away,” Jack observed. “They have the range figured down to a dot. If they waste a shot they soon know it.”
“But how can they, when even with a glass no one could see the Turkish forts away up in the straits?” Amos asked, filled with curiosity.
“If you look up in the heavens you’ll have your answer,” Jack told him.
“Oh! now I see what you mean; there are eyes in the sky. Those aeroplanes are a part of the Allies’ outfit, and they keep watching all the time
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 to see where the shells fall, so as to correct the fire. It’s a great scheme, isn’t it, Jack?”
“A part of the war game of today, Amos, for we’re living in a fast age. Before this war is over I firmly believe there will be battleships of the air as well as of the sea, and they won’t be Zeppelins either.”
“Just to think,” the other boy mused, “right now I may be looking up at my brother Frank, for there’s a pretty big chance if he’s still alive one of those dots in the sky is his aeroplane. And, Jack, if we notice anyone of them that seems to be more daring than the rest, that’ll be Frank, by all accounts.”
Steadily the Thunderer pressed on, still heading for the jaws of land that marked the end of the Dardanelles Straits. With the passage of every minute the eagerness of the two lads increased until Amos was almost quivering with excitement.
“Look, Jack, I do believe they’re getting ready to fire one of the big guns in that forward turret. If you’ve got that cotton handy, please g............