led me, over and
under more steel cables, until he paused to point towards an empty
slip near by.

"That's where we built the _Lusitania_!" said he. "We thought she was
pretty big then--but now--!" he settled his hat a little further over
one eye with a knock on the crown.

"Poor old _Lusitania_!" said I, "she'll never be forgotten."

"Not while ships sail!" he answered, squaring his square jaw, "no,
she'll never be forgotten, nor the murderers who ended her!"

"And they've struck a medal in commemoration," said I.

"Medal!" said he, and blew his nose louder than before. "I fancy
they'll wish they could swallow that damn medal, one day. Poor old
_Lusitania_! You lose any one aboard?"

"I had some American friends aboard, but they escaped, thank
God--others weren't so fortunate."

"No," he answered, turning away, "but America got quite angry--wrote
a note, remember? Over there's one of the latest submarines. Germany
can't touch her for speed and size, and better than that, she's got
rat-tat--"

"I beg pardon?" I wailed, for the hammers were riotous again, "what
has she?"

"She's got rat-tat forward and rat-tat aft, surface speed rat-tat-tat
knots, submerged rat-tat-tat, and then best of all she's
rattle-tattle-tattle. Yes, hammers are a bit noisy! This way. A
destroyer yonder--new class--rat-tat feet longer than ordinary. We
expect her to do rat-tat-tat knots and she'll mount rat-tat guns.
There are two of them in the basin yonder having their engines
fitted, turbines to give rat-tat-tat horse power. But come on, we'd
better be going or we shall lose the others of your party."

"I should like to stay here a week," said I, tripping over a steel
hawser.

"Say a month," he added, steadying me deftly. "You might begin to see
all we've been doing in a month. We've built twenty-nine ships of
different classes since the war began in this one yard, and we're
going on building till the war's over--and after that too. And this
place is only one of many. Which reminds me you're to go to another
yard this afternoon--we'd better hurry after the rest of your party
or they'll be waiting for you."

"I'm afraid they generally are!" I sighed, as I turned and followed
my conductor through yawning doorways (built to admit a giant, it
seemed) into vast workshops whose lofty roofs were lost in haze. Here
I saw huge turbines and engines of monstrous shape in course of
construction; I beheld mighty propellers, with boilers and