companion--'Master,' I
says, 'there's somethin' on th' north end o' th' Sands.' He comes up an'
has a look. Then we made 'im out what he was, a big German sub.--but he
hadn't no flag flyin'. Jest then we hears firin', an' th' shells goes
over us an' lands nigh him. They was three drifters jes' come out o' th'
Downs t' start sweepin' an', all three, they goes for him like
billy-o--firin' as they comes. We was right atween them an' th' shots
passes over th' lightship. One as was short just pitches clear an
'undred yards ahead o' us. Two guns he had--th' sub.--an' they didn't
half make a din as they goes at it--_bang-bang-bang!_ Th' drifters
passes us, goin' a full clip. The first one, she got hit a-top th'
wheelhouse, but they didn't stop for nothin'. The' keeps bangin' away
with th' gun. . . . Yes. Some shots landed hereabouts, but we was busy
watchin' th' drifters. . . . I see their shots hittin', too. I see one
blaze up on th' submarine's deck, an' one o' his guns didn't talk back
no more. Th' drifters was steerin' straight for him. I dunno how one o'
them didn't go ashore herself--near it, she was. The sub. was hard on by
this time, an' he stands high--with a list, too, but fightin' away like
he was afloat.

"Two more drifters come up an' they joins in, an' th' shells goes
_who-o-o-o!_ overhead again. Then a destroyer, he comes tearin' along at
full speed, an' he puts th' finishin' touch to him. There was an
explosion on th' submarine, an' th' nex' we see--we see his men tumblin'
out o' him overside t' th' Sands. . . . Them up t' their middles in th'
water an' holdin' their hands up."

The lampman was, of his service, a trained observer. He said nothing of
the scene on the deck of the lightship--the watch tumbling up from
below, their clothing hastily thrown on--the questioning, the alarmed
cries. His concern was directed to the happenings on spit of the Sands.
"Some shots landed hereabouts," he said; but his interest was on the
Goodwins.

[Illustration: MINESWEEPERS GOING OUT]

VII

'THE PRICE O' FISH'

THE inshore patrol hailed us and reported the channel clear as far as
the Nore, and we stood on at full speed, making the most of the short
winter daylight. Past the Elbow buoy, we met the minesweepers returning
from a sweep of their section. They were steaming in two columns, line
ahead, and we sheered a little to give them room; within the reading of
our Admiralty instructions, they were a 'squadron