CHAPTER XI

UNEXPECTED PERIL


The four apprentice seamen went down to Rivermouth in great spirits. The
home folks were not actually glad to see them go, but they were a little
relieved; for the chums had managed to keep things very lively about
Seacove during their shore leave.

The terrible disaster at Elmvale, however, had sobered the four friends
a good bit at the last. Seven Knott had gone away before it happened, so
he had had no part in their later adventures. They were not even sure
that he had gone to join the crew of the _Kennebunk_, the new
superdreadnaught to which they were assigned for a brief cruise.

They had heard nothing from Ensign MacMasters, so the Navy boys did not
know when or how they were to meet him; but they went to Rivermouth on
the early train and had plenty of time to look about the port and see
all of the shipping in the harbor.

One craft they did not see. The oil tender, _Sarah Coville_, was not
here, and, on making some inquiries of the dock loungers, the boys
learned that she had not been seen at Rivermouth since the night they
had come in off the submarine chaser in the fog.

Rivermouth was fast becoming a base for patrol boats and submarines, it
seemed, although New London and Groton, across the harbor from New
London, were really the headquarters for all such craft along the North