The Glory of The Coming

ut of the water, and wallowed as she rode, because during all those days of our crossing she hugged up close to our ship, splashing thro

our kicking screw would take us, and saw her going down, taking American soldier boys t

hese words are being cabled across from London to the home side of the ocean, at least three weeks more must elapse before they can see printer's ink. So to some this will seem an old story; but the memory

ant and mildly exciting bustle, and as we drew away from the dock and headed out into midstream and down the river for our long hike overseas, the pierhead would have been alive with waving handkerchiefs, and all our decks would have been fringed with voyagers shouting back farewells to those they had left behind them. Instead we slipped away almost as if we had done something wrong. There was no waving of hands and handkerchiefs, no good-byes on the gang-planks, no rush to get back on land when the shore bell sounded. To reach the dock we passed through trochas of barbed-wire entanglem

was quite full of soldiers-officers in the first cabin, and the steerage packed with khakied troopers-ninety per cent of whom had never smelled bilge water before they embarked upon their great adventu

ion returning from America, and an Irish brewer. There were not very many women on our passenger list. Of these women half a dozen or so were professional nurses, and two were pretty Canadi

k the sun, squinting into his sextant with the deep absorption with which in happier times a certain type of tourist was wont to stare through an enlarging device at a certain type of Parisian photograph. At night, though, we were in a darkened ship, a gliding black shape upon black waters, with heavy shades over all the portholes and thick draperies over all the doors, and only dim lights burning in the passageways and cross halls, so that every odd corner on deck or within was as dark as a coal pocket. It took some time to get used to being in the state in which Moses was when the light went out; but then, we had time to get

bout with cork flaps hugging them about their necks fore and aft, so that they rather suggested Chinese malefactors with their heads incased in punishment casques. By request the civilian passengers were expected to carry their life preservers with them where

he looked even more of a squatty and unheroic figure than he had in his naval blue presiding at the head of the table; but by repute we knew him for a man who had gone through one torp

; but there was a sort of nagging, persistent sense of uneasiness betraying itself in various small ways. For one thing, all of us made more jokes about submarines, mines and

fashion after which she so persistently and constantly strove to stick as closely under our stem as safety and the big waves would permit. It was as though her skipper placed all reliance in our skipper, looking to him t

s, our ship gave it a wide berth, sheering off from the object in a sharp swing. Almost at the same moment upon our other bow, at a distance of not more than one hundred yards from the crooked course we were then pursuing, there appeared out through one of the swells a lifeboat, oarless, abandoned, empty, except for what looked like a woman's cloak ly

y rollers began to splash with greasy sounds against our plates. Far away somewhere we saw the revolving light of a lighthouse winking across the face of the waters like a drunken

sport of trying to better two pairs, we heard against our side of the ship a queer knocking sou

on," said one of us, looking up from his cards

after that when an American officer opened

ly so as not to give alarm or frighten any of the women. S

e went. We came to the edge of the promenade deck aft. There were not many persons there, as well as we could tell in the t

or at the moment of our reaching the deck of our ship the Tuscania was lighted up all over. Her illumination seemed especially brilliant, but that, I suppose, was largely because we had become accustomed to seeing our fellow transports as dark bulks at night. I should say she was not more than a mile from us, almost due aft and a trifle to the left. But the distance between us visibly in

guardian destroyers would even now be hurrying to the rescue, and we knew land was not many miles, away; but all the same, I think I never felt such an object of sha

blow that the rows of lights I saw yonder through the murk were all slanting slightly downward toward what would be the bow of th

mming out as they descended. After a bit two more rockets followed in rapid succession. I always thought a rocket to be a beautiful thing. Probably this belief is a heritage from that time in my boyhood when first I saw Fourth-of-July firewor

at all, but just stared out across the Waters until our eyeballs ached in their sockets. So quiet were we that I jumped when right

the outfit on that boat yonder. Well, if they get him it will only add

it I made no answer, for th

Presently we could distinguish but one speck of light. Alongside this one special gleam a red glow suddenly appeared-not a rocket this time, but a flare, undoubtedly. Together the two lights-the steady white one and the

d. Very solemnly, like men performing a rite, we ordered wine and we drank t

light fired it at us, and that our captain up on the bridge saw it coming when it was yet some way off, and swinging the ship hard over to one side, dodged the flittering devil-thing by a margin that can be measured literally in inches. The call was a close one. The torpedo, it was said, actually grazed the plates of our vessel-it was that we heard as we sat at cards-and passing aft struck the bow of the Tuscania as she swung alon

ide, some of them to be drowned but more of them to be saved, those American lads of ours sang what before then had been a meaningless, trivial jingle, but which is destined forevermore, I think, to mean a great deal to Americans. Perry said: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." Lawrence said: "Don't give up the ship!" Farragut said: "Damn the torpedoes, go ahead." Dewey said: "You may fire, Gridley, when you are ready." Our history is full of splendid se