Sea-Hounds

zes blowing over flowery fields, and cobalt skies arching over sapphire waters, and all that sort of thing; but the human mind moves in a mysterious way, and that is just what Lieutenant K

view ahead that the frost-layer on the wind-screen denied him from anywhere inboard. Then, just ducking a sea that rolled in tumultuously fluent ebony over the forecastle gun and smothered the b

be thankful for, anyhow. Didn't expect to round up half of 'em before we had to stand away

nued with: "Not much like what I was enjoying a month ago, this," indicating the encompassing darkness with a rotary roll of his head. "I was in a destroyer at an Italian base then-Brindisi-with the smell of dust and donkeys and wine-shops in the air, and straight-backed, black-haired, black-eyed girls, with rings in their ears an

rs and fruit-baskets on their heads. Of course, there's more light and colour do

of how one of them, looking through his glass as he stood in toward the entrance on one of his return trips, saw his rival walking on the beach with arm round the waist of the artful minx in question, and her red-and-yellow kerchief-bound head resting on his shoulder;

al at best. "I didn't mean that kind of 'slap-bang,'" I said. "I was under the impressi

ed lively while they lasted," he admitted. "I was in o

of the attack of four Austrian destroyers and a light cruiser or two?" I asked. "I have always wanted to hear

I was in the Flop-the one that

tling myself into the nearest thing to a listening attitude that one can a

e rough night; or it may have been only because K--'s mind (his non-working mind, I mean; not that closed compartment of sense and instinct with which he was directing his ship) had drifted back to the Adriatic, and he was glad of the chance to talk about it

, sally forth in an endeavour to penetrate the Straits of Otranto and attack the commerce of the Mediterranean. You doubtless also know that this work is very largely in British hands. This is no reflection whatever on our Italian ally. Italy simply did not have the material and the trained men for the task in ha

t many points, and still have time to get back to their bases the same night. With our own bases-the only practicable ones available-at the extreme southern end of the Adriatic, our greatest difficulty, perhaps, has been in guarding against these swift tip-and-run night-raids by the enemy's speedy surface craft. I don't know whether the fact th

n, they were sharply silhouetted; but the queer atmospheric conditions played such pranks with their outlines that, for a time, he was deceived as to their real character. The warm, coastal airs, blowing to sea for a few hours after nightfall, have a tendency to produce mirage effects scarcely less striking than those one sees on the desert al

d made him suspect they were warships. The alarm bell clanging for 'Action Stations' was the first intimation I had that anything was afoot. In the Adriatic, as everywhere else, everyone in a destr

ay, something which was hardly likely to happen in the event we closed in a real death grapple. The disparity between our strength and that of the enemy would have entirely justified us in doing our utmost to avoid a decisive fight, had it been that the cards on the table were the only ones in the game. But this was hardly the case. Out of sight, but still not so many miles dista

m the bursting shell showed up distinctly a few hundred yards ahead of the Flip. Both the sharpened image of the cruiser in the light of the gun-fire and the time of flight of the shell helped us with the range, and the fall of shot from the Flip's opener looked like a very near thing. We followed it with one from our fo'c'sl' gun, whic

, with many times the weight of metal we were getting to him. At this juncture the skipper of the Flip, evidently figuring that the Austrians, now that they were fully engaged and had a good chance of polishing us off, would no

t was because they were concentrating on the 'windy corner' just as we were rounding it. At any rate, trying to observe through our rather patchy smoke the effect of what appeared to be a couple of extremely well-placed shots of ours on the leading cruiser, I suddenly became aware that all four of the destroyers and the second cruiser were directing all of their fire upon the poor little Fl

up to the bridge that a full salvo-probably from one of the cruisers-came crashing into us. My first impression was that we were blown up completely, for of the two shells which had struck for'ard, one had brought down th

he bang of flying fragments and falling gear that makes a heavy shelling so staggering, to mind if not to body. Of course everyone on the forebridge was knocked flat by the explosion of the shell which hit it, and the worst of it was that

th to casualties and material damage. The radio aerials came down with the mast, of course, and it was some of the wreckage from one or the other that fell

oth were set on fire. This fire got to some of the cordite before it was possible to get it away, and the ensuing explosion killed or wounded most of the supply parties and the crews of the twelve-pounders. It was brave beyond all words, the fight those men ma

uting from one to another until the order reaches the man to carry it out. This would be an awkward enough expedient for a ship that is not under fire and fighting for time and her life. What it is with the enemy's shell exploding about you, and with your own guns firing, I will leave you to imagine. Well, we had all this going on, and besides that a fire raging below that always had the possibilities of disaster in it until it was extinguished. Also, we

r messenger. It was ten minutes or more before they contrived to hush the sirens-it was cutting off their steam that did it, I believe-and by then a new and even more serious trouble had developed through the jamming of the helm. It was hard over to starboard at that, so that the Flop simply began turning round and round like

the cruisers were about to present us the finest and easiest kind of a torpedo target. The captain, who, in spite of his wounds, was still trying to stick the show through, saw the opening as soon as I did, and, because there was no one else free to attempt the trick, tackled it himself. But it was a case of the spirit being willing and the flesh weak. With eve

he Flip had also been hard hit, and when I had a chance for a good look at her again it appeared that her mast, like ours, was trailing over the side. She was still firing, however, and it was she rather than the enemy that was trying to close. We were quite cut off from wireless communication, as all attempts to disentangle the aerials from the wreckage of the mast had been unsuccessf

jam every time course was altered, and with a considerable mixture of water beginning to make its presence felt in the oil, there was no telling what complications might se

nt the helm jammed again. Then it worked free for a few seconds, but only to jam presently, just as before. This continued during two or three minutes, and just as it was wangled right and we began to steady again I saw the wake of a torpedo pass

ally got under control by flooding, and we were fairly cus

t represented the units of the straggling convoy. He was wiping snow

," he muttered. "Plenty of he

pearance of the middle watch, and for those relieved, including myself, the world held just one thing-a long, narrow bunk, with a high side rail to prevent th