Sea-Hounds

up your luggage and connect if you want to go. I can't tell you what they're going to do-they won't know that themselves till they get to sea, and their orders may be changed from hour to

e U-boats. Whatever else you may suffer from, it won't be from ennui." It was luck indeed, on two hours' notice, to have the chance of getting o

. "Zip-yes, I don't think I can do better than send you on the Zip. Her skipper is as keen as he is able, and the Zip herself has the reputation of having something of a nose for U-boats on her own accoun

skins in the captain's cabin-which, unoccupied by himself during that strenuous interval, was to be mine at sea-she was swinging

sparkling, unquenchable youthfulness. Everything you see and hear seems to radiate it-every throb of the engines, every beat of the screws-and at first you may almost get the impression that it comes from the ship herself. But when you start to

equisite training in long years of technical study and practical experience. Given these, and the remainder of the ship's company-provided only that they have digestive organs that will continue to function when tilted through a dozen different slants and angles in as many seconds-can be trained to perfection in an astonishingly short time. Here it is that America has scored, for there is no doubt that

nection: "The ship's company of any one of these American destroyers," he said, "will average a good five years younger than that of a

e will you find that save in the youngsters-tireless, fearless, careless boys. They've found that out in the air services, and we're finding it out in the destroyers. And right there-in these quick-headed, quick-footed super-boys of theirs-is

where the in-rolling Atlantic swells were blotting with undulant humps the fading primrose of the narrow strip of after-glow-"if this wind and sea keep the same force and direction for three or four days more, I'll promise you all the excitement your heart can desire when we take on our escort duties. The last time we took out the old Lymptania-well, I've got marks on me yet from the corners I got banged up against, and as for the poor little Zip-but she's had a refit since and most of the scars have been removed. As you will have ample chance to see for yourself, there isn't a lot of dolce far niente in any of this life we lead in connection with our little game here, but if there is one phase of ou

made very passable weather of it. The bridge, save for occasional showers of light spray where a sea slapped over the side, was quite dry, and even on the long run of low deck amidships there were several havens of refuge where the men off watc

G" WITH UP

hemselves. I was just ingratiating myself with this party by nodding assent and voicing an emphatic "Sure!" to one's query of "Some corn that, mister, hey?" when I discovered a cosmopolitan group (two Filipino stewards, the coloured cook, and three or four bluejackets in sleeveless grey sweaters) collaborating in the arduous task of teaching a very sad-faced white mongrel to sit up on his haunches and beg. Or rather it was an elaboration of that classic trick. On drawing nearer I perceived that the lugubrious-visaged canine already had mastered begging for food, and that now they were endeavouring to teach him to beg for mercy. At the order "Kamerad!" instead of sitting with down-drooping paws, he was being instructed to raise the latter above his head and give tongue to a wail of entreaty. He was a brighter pup than his looks would have indicated, and h

ran alongside the whaler containing the captain and mate, and they were ordered aboard to be interrogated. Under the pretence of preventing any attempt to escape on the part of the remainder of those in this boat, the Germans made them clamber up and stand on the narrow steel run-way which serves as the upper deck of a submarine. No sooner were they here, however, than the Hun humorist on the bridge began slowly submerging. When the water was lapping round the necks of the unfortunate Norwegians, and just threatening to eng

home with all of them, and when it has been supplemented-as in the case of the sailors in the destroyers-by the first-hand teachings of the Huns themselves, it generally leaves a man in something like the proper state of mind for the task in hand. Not that I really think any of the Americans, when they have the chance, as happens every now and then, will carry out all the little plans they claim to be maturing, but-well, if I was an exponent of the U-boat branch of German kul

nanimity, had been engaged in cursing Sinn Feiners, with whom it appeared they had been having considerable contact-physical and otherwise-in the course of the last few months. Then one of the more rabid of them on this particular subject-he and one of his mates ha

he lad who had led the attack on Sinn Fein was named Morarity and had been born in Cork, and that the one who maintained that nothing

they had it in for both the Hun and the Sinn Feiner; but, because each of them had a name to live down, he felt it incumbent on himself to out-strafe his mates in the direction from which that

d bristled with interest for the young visitor, from the marmalade at breakfast and the port at dinner to croquet on the lawn and a punt on the Thames at Richmond. But the best of it all had been that he had brought a standing invitation from the same family to any of his mates who might be coming up to London while the war was on. During the refit, which was supposed to be imminent, two of these, who had plumped for the great London adventure, had screwed up their courage to following up the invitation to the hospitable home in question. Out of his broader experience, their worldly mate was tipping them off against possible breakers. This is t

the ward-room, under the bridge, so that I was a good deal inclined to take it as a joke-and a rather ill-timed one at that-when an ensign about to turn in on one of the transoms muttered something about being thankful that we were going to have one quiet night when a man could snatch a wink of sleep. I asked him if he referred to the night we expected to be in port waiting for

ery tree and bush may hide potential quarry. And that, indeed, was precisely the way it was with us. The night before we were "on our way"; this morning we were ploughing waters where U-boats were known to be operating. It was only a couple of days previously that the good old Carpathia had been put down, and no

ows the click-click after a trigger is set to "hair." It was as though every

COOK TO PE

w a rag from the pocket of his "jeans," and then, with great care and deliberation, begin to polish a patch of steel plate that was exposed in the angle of two strips of coco-matting. "Wha' cher holystoning deck yetawhile fer, Pete?" one of his mates shouted. "Can'cher wait till we gets back to port? We may have to foul your pretty work with greasy Huns any minnit." Unperturbed, Pete went right on rubbing, testing the footing every now and

it'd be more for most of you 'shorties.' Now I just figures that step number four lands my foot square in the dribble of oil on that patch where there ain't no matting; so what was more natural than for me to go and swab it up. Last time the gong binged I hit half a preserved peach, and sprained a wrist and ankle so bad that I woulda be

t these letters are still the common term in use to describe the call of a ship in distress-of a steamer that had been torpedoed. But the sails turned out to be friends in every case, while both of the ships reported sinking were too far away for us to be of any use to them. Early in the afternoon a suspiciously cruising craft,

n and half the look that sits on the face of a terrier who discovers that he has cornered his own family's "Tabby" instead of the neighbour's "Tom"; "blank!-did you ever see a blank 'X-point-X' that threw up a spout as high as a masthead, and all black with smoke?

told you, I think, that I had arranged to go out next week on patrol

ing it if they have their wits about them." Then, with a grin, "But if you're really going out on submarine patrol next we

. With every minute likely to be of crucial importance, it was not an occasion to waste time by waiting or asking for orders. A swift exchange of signals between ships, a hurried order or two down a voice-pipe, an advancing of the handle of the engine-room telegraph, a throwing over of the wheel, and we had spun in the welter of our tossing wake and were off on a mission that might prove one of either mercy or destruction, or, quite conceivably, both. The formation in which we had been cruising when the signal was received gave the Zip something like a mile lead at

n to leeward; then, with perfect synchronisation of draught and oil, the duskiness above the mouths of the stumpy stacks had cleared, and only the mirage on the horizon astern betrayed the up-spouting jets of hot gases. Only the vibrant throb of the speeding engines-so pervading that it seemed to puls

ed-lived in, worked and played in, been happy in, perhaps gone through certain dangers in-has more than a personality, it has a place in his heart. Many and many a morning since the first U-boat campaign was started I had read-and never without a lump rising in my throat-of the passing of just such a friend, of the going out of the world of something-almost of "some one"-which I had always looked forward to seeing again. Afric, Arabic, Aragon, I knew their names well enough to co

a picture of the clean sweet lines of her as-buff, black, and beautiful-she lay at the north end of the horseshoe of the Circular Quay at Sydney, with a rakish Messageries liner moored astern of her and a bluff Norddeutscher Lloyd packet ahead. It was her maiden voyage, and Australia, which had never seen so swift and luxurious a liner before, was receiving her like a newly arrived prima donna. I took passage in her back as far as Colombo. That fortnight's voyage had been diverting in a number of ways, I recalled, but most of all, perhaps, as a consequence of the throwing together of a large party of Wesle

read; "survivors picke

lucky mistake for us. It was some time later before they figured just how it had chanced, but what had happened was this. The Marmora's last despairing call-doubtless sent out by a breaking-down radio-gave her position as some ten or twelve miles out from what it really was. The consequence was that, heading somewhat wide of the sinking ship, to which, however, on account of the presence of the patrol boats, which had evidently been close enough to come to her immediate assistance, we could have been of small

ards the point where the Marmora had gone down that a whine from the lookou

" asked back

n. Tumbling to their stations like hounds on a hot scent, they yet managed to avoid getting in each other's way, even in the narrow passages and on the ladders. The loom of the conning-tower was plain to the naked eye, now that one knew where to look for it, but only for a fe

s hand went back to pull the wire of a gong which gave certain orders to the men standing-by with the depth-charges. That, a word down the engine-room

uld the need arise. Such a need now confronted the Zip, and, like the thoroughbred she was, her response was instant and generous. The pulsing throb of her quickened till it was almost a hum; the quivering insistency of i

es had elapsed when the cry of "Oil slick-starboard bow!" came almost simultaneously from the look-outs in the foretop and on the bridge. Over went the helm a spoke or two, and the executive officer, in his hand a thin piece of board with a

siphon has ceased to play on it. Following that by a second or two, a smooth rounded geyser of foam boiled up a dozen feet or so, and then gradually subsided. That one, plainly, was a deep-set charge, whose force was ex

ms of their rapidly scuttled depth-charges began to drum, while astern

effect. The savageness of the bolts of wrath released by the exploding charges was strikingly disclosed when two of them chanced to be dropped at nearly the same time by destroyers a mile or more apart, when the under-sea "jolts" would meet half-way and form weird evanescent "rips" o

g skater throw ice when he makes a sudden turn, so the screws of a speeding destroyer hurl water. The stern sank deep into the propeller-scooped void, so that the high-tossed side-slipping wake buried it beneath a frothing flood. Through several long seconds I saw the water bo

losions. Most of these were pale, sickly, and highly an?mic in colour, and of scant promise; but for one, where fresh oil rising spread rainbow-bright upon the surface, the Zip headed full tilt. The explosion here appeared to have been an unusually heavy one, for the sea was dotted with the white bellies of stunned fish, most of them floating high out of the wat

me not the most delicate instrument devised by science for that purpose revealed any indication of life or movement in the depths below. As the water at this point was far too deep to allow a submarine to descend and lie on the bottom without being crushed, this fact appeared morally conclusive. It was this I had in mind when I tried to draw the captain out on the subject. "Of course there's no doubt we bagged him?" I hazarded, in a quiet interval when we were watchfully waiting for something to turn up, or rather come up. He smiled a rather t

l alive among the wreckage of the Marmora, and ordering us to proceed to the scene of her sinking with all dispatch. The moon was rising as we began to nose

of a cutter which, in spite of a smashed gunwale, was still afloat, and I was just thinking of how grateful a lee, in the monsoon, the windward side of the old Marmora's lifeboats had furnished for a deck-chair or two, w