st go," he sobbed. And indeed he
had to, for the _Tanganyika_ was going down. He could hardly keep his
balance. Hot steam was blowing up in great gray gusts from the
fiddley-grating. He was near the water now. It might be too late. He
jumped.

For a moment as the chill of the water struck him, for he had been in a
bath of sweat as he stood there sobbing, he thought he had been killed.
He was a good swimmer, for they had made a point of it in his old
training-ship. He struck out away, away from the ship as fast as he
could. He realized more keenly, now, how dangerous it was to remain
near. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen strokes. He turned over,
treading water and shaking the moisture from his eyes. He was horrified
to find how close he was. The ship's bows were towering over him and
wavering to and fro. And as he turned to get farther out, he felt
himself raised up on a vast billow of smooth water that was rolling in
over the _Tanganyika_. He was carried forward and whirled over and over.
With something that was almost obstinacy he made up his mind to do the
best for himself, kept his mouth shut for one thing, and avoided wearing
himself out with useless efforts. And he suddenly brought up against
something that nearly knocked the breath out of his body and scraped all
the skin off his face. He spread his arms and grasped. He thought hard
and quick. The bow! He held on. It was not going down, but up, he was
sure. And then, to his surprise, for he really had no authentic belief
that he would survive this unusual affair, he found himself out of the
water hugging a long iron ridge that trembled just awash.

He began to think again. The mass of metal to which he was clinging was
vibrating as though from a series of heavy submarine blows. Huge groans
and sharp cracks communicated themselves to his body. He had no faith in
the ship remaining long like this. In all probability the forward hatch
would get stove in or the peak would fail and then, with the whole ship
flooded, she would go down. Away off he heard a heavy detonation. There
was a sparkle of red fire and a crack as the sloop fired a three-pounder
into the darkness. He caught sight of a faint light which gave him her
position. Boom! More depth-charges. Very active now, he thought with
unreasoning bitterness, now it was all over. He saw the blur of the
sloop moving fast towards him. He threw his leg over the stem, sat up,
and putting two fingers of each hand in h