her, as a shark follows a
death-ship; we seemed even to have backed into its course--it came on
as though to strike us full amidships.

The excitement was almost more than I could bear; I turned away,
waiting for the tremendous concussion; I heard awful curses from the
men, the cowardly shouting of "Roaring John," the blasphemies of "Dick
the Ranter." I knew that Black alone was calm; and at the last I fixed
my eyes upon him when the head of the torpedo's foam was not thirty
yards away from us. In that supreme moment the power of the man rose to
a great height. He grasped the situation with the calmness of one
thinking in bed; and waiting motionless for some seconds, which were
seconds almost of agony to the rest of us, he cried of a sudden--

"Hard a-starboard!" and the helm went over with a run.

The movement was altogether superb. The great ship swung round with a
majestic sweep, and as we waited breathlessly, the torpedo passed right
under our bow, missing the ram by a hair's-breadth. The reaction was
nigh intolerable; the men waited for some seconds silent as the
voice-less; then their cheers rang away over the seas in a great volume
of sound, which must have re-echoed down in the caverns of the
Atlantic.

"You, Dick," ordered Black, "return the lubbers that, or I'll whip
you;" and Dick, who had got his wits back, replied--

"Skipper, if I dinna dive into their internals, gie me sax dozen."

"Hands to quarters," continued the skipper; "let no man show himself
till I call, then him as doesn't fight for all he's worth, let him
prepare to swing."

With this there fell a great busyness, the men going, some to the
turrets, some to the magazines below.

Black had not noticed me during the episode of the torpedo, but he
turned round now, and, seeing that I stood near him, he beckoned me
into the conning-tower with him. It was a chamber lined with steel with
a small glass for the look-out, and electric knobs which allowed
communication with the engine-rooms, the wheel, the turrets, and the
magazines. From that pinnacle of metal you could navigate the ship, and
there Black fought the battle of that night and of the days following.
And as I stood at his side I learned from his running comments much of
the course of the fight.

"Boy," he said, "what I'm worth I'm going to show this night; and, as
your eyes are younger than mine, I'm going to borrow the loan of them.
That hen-coop yonder with the Government flag on