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Updated: September 26, 2025
"No need," Lieutenant Mackinson assured him, "for we are not lost, nor are we separated from them. Every vessel in this fleet is simply carrying out a program secretly arranged long in advance, and which was in the nature of a sealed order which the various captains did not open until this morning.
That evening it was Joe's turn to do watch in the wireless room with Lieutenant Mackinson until eleven o'clock, at about which time the young officer retired to his bunk just off the operating room, and Slim came on, to work until three a. m., when he was relieved by Jerry, who stayed until seven o'clock, at which time the lieutenant again assumed charge until relieved by Joe.
It was a standing order, however at least until the younger men became more experienced with the wireless that Lieutenant Mackinson immediately should be apprised of the sending or receiving of any messages. This first evening out the lieutenant complained of a headache, and, acquiescing in Joe's urging, had gone upon deck to get the air.
But if this is to be our end, I guess we can face it as Americans should." "Bravo!" exclaimed Lieutenant Mackinson, "I always knew that each one of you fellows had the right sort of stuff in you." And Jerry, too, slapped him affectionately on the back.
And so, even as two men carried Lieutenant Mackinson away, he remained standing at salute, waiting for the captain to recognize him with a return of the salute. "And now what?" asked the captain. Jerry stepped forward, with difficulty repressing his excitement. "I stepped out of the wireless room for only a few moments," he said. "When I returned I found this lying upon the table."
By ten feet of heavy twine Lieutenant Mackinson had tied the spurs to the car so that they would dangle within reach of the lads on the ground. Attached to them was a note, which read: "Easy landing on soft slope. Let Slim come next before wire is weakened, because he is the heaviest. All can make it safely."
The entire message was repeated, and then there was silence the dense and seemingly impenetrable silence that had existed before. Came the nearer and more powerful crackle of the radio. "One of our destroyers is replying," Lieutenant Mackinson announced, and one by one he jotted down the words: "Continue same direction. U. S. destroyer be with you in about two hours."
Dawn came, and with it new activities in all parts of the vessel, but without a reward for their watch, and as the two lads crawled from their places of concealment at either end of the passage, to join Slim and Lieutenant Mackinson, there were mutual feelings of disappointment, but none of weakened determination. "What luck?" asked the captain, coming in at that moment.
Our young friends were busy with wash basin, soap and water, taking off the grime in preparation for the evening meal and wondering where Jerry was keeping himself all the while, when suddenly a very strange thing happened beyond the enemy's line. Lieutenant Mackinson was the first to discover it and call the attention of the others.
He never had a chance, for I did not make a sound," Jerry interposed in German, before the young Boche could make even an involuntary admission. As they approached the base of the mountain where they had parted from Lieutenant Mackinson, Joe, and Frank early that day, the moon reached its zenith, and its beams, reflected upon the white ground, made the night almost as light as day.
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