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"No, she surfaced," Mel reported. "Can't make this out yet, but it could be another sub." Bud turned the controls over to Zimby Cox. Then he rushed to the scope and examined the blip. "Seems to be moving away from us on a westerly course. It's about two miles from here." He donned the hydrophone earset and listened. "It's no seacopter, nor a jetmarine either," he announced presently.
All my hopes of getting up again that night, both for the purpose of charging and of getting the 3 a.m. signal, were doomed to be disappointed, as the hydrophone operator kept on reporting the noise of destroyers overhead. Occasional distant thuds seemed to indicate a never-ending supply of depth-charges, but they were about four or five miles from me.
The hydrophone watchkeeper reported that he could still hear fast-running propellers, though probably some distance away, and as this showed that our old enemy was still nosing about we were very anxious not to break surface.
Tom explained the results of the test and the need for an added safeguard against hydrophone detection. "Think I see a simple way out, though," he added with a pleased chuckle. "Natch! With a brain like yours, it's a cinch," Bud quipped. "Explain, professor." "Well, we can never do away with the noise of a sub's propulsion machinery," Tom began. "That goes without saying.
Meanwhile, the sonarman was probing the surrounding waters. "Any pings?" Tom asked. The man shook his head without taking his eyes from the sonarscope. "Nothing yet." Hank Sterling donned a hydrophone headset and listened intently. The silence deepened in the Sea Hound's cabin. Suddenly Hank stiffened and the sonarman cried out: "A blip, skipper! At two o'clock!"
It was evident that we had only been saved by the torpedo running deep under the cut-away part of our bow, otherwise! well, the tangle of my affairs would have been easily straightened. Further procedure on the surface was suicidal, and we kept hydrophone patrol, twice hearing the motors of the enemy submarine.
Weissman immediately dived and, without deviating a degree from his course, held on at three-quarters speed on the motors. Some time later the hydrophone watchkeeper reported the sound of propellers in his listeners, and that he judged them to be close at hand, so I imagine we passed very nearly directly underneath whatever it was.
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