“I can’t see how the secretary dares let time slip by like that.”
“Never mind,” said the ambassador, “you’ll find in a day or two that Secretary Daniels knows what he’s doing. Don’t make any mistake about him. He’s a capable man.”
“I have no doubt of that, sir,” replied Jack. “But if he had seen three years of war, as we have, he would never delay. Besides, he doesn’t know these German submarines as well as I do. Neither do any of the Americans.”
“Oh, yes they do,” declared Frank.
“They do, eh?” exclaimed Jack. “Well, I’d like to know the name of one of them.”
“His name,” said Frank, “is Lieutenant Chadwick, and I think he knows just about as much about the U-Boats as you do; and he agrees with your ideas perfectly.”
Jack smiled.
“That’s right,” he said. “I had forgotten you were a native of this land. Well, here’s hoping nothing happens before Secretary Daniels takes all necessary precautions.”
The British ambassador left the lads at their hotel, and they returned at once to their rooms, where for several hours they discussed the situation.
“There is no use talking about it,” said Frank at last. “Let’s go to bed.”
They undressed.
Just before extinguishing the light, as was his custom, Frank raised the window. As he looked out he saw below a crowd of excited men and women moving about the street.
“Hey, Jack!” he called. “Come here.”
Jack joined him at the window.
“Now what’s up, do you suppose?” asked Frank.
“Too deep for me,” declared Jack, “but something surely. Let’s go down and find out.”
Hurriedly they slipped back into their clothes, and went down stairs. They stepped out of the hotel and mingled with the people on the streets, quite a crowd for Washington at that hour of the night.
The stream of people led toward Eleventh and Pennsylvania avenue, where a larger crowd was gathered in front of a bulletin board in the window of a newspaper office.
“Big news of some kind,” said Jack as they hurried along.
“And not good news, either,” Frank declared. “There’d be some cheering if it were.”
“You’re right,” said Jack.
By main force they wormed their way through the crowd, until they were close enough to read the bulletin board. Then Jack uttered an exclamation of alarm.
“I knew it!” he cried.
For what he read was this:
“Navy Department announces sinking of two freight vessels off New Jersey coast by German submarines.”
“I knew it!” Jack said again.
CHAPTER XIII
THE SUBMARINES GROW BOLDER
The boys returned to their rooms.
“Now what?” asked Frank.
“I don’t know,” was Jack’s reply. “I hate to sit here quietly when the whole American navy, or what part of it is still here, is in chase of the Germans, but what are we going to do about it?”