a broad path of silver on the surface of the gently heaving
sea. It was a few minutes after four bells in the middle watch when,
having been dozing for some time in my chair, which had been taken up to
the bridge for my convenience, I scrambled to my feet and began to pace
to and fro, for I was feeling somewhat chilly, although wrapped in a
good warm ulster.

The beauty of the night fascinated me. It was so calm and peaceful, and
the air, although a trifle cool, was yet bland, as though it were a
breath of the coming summer; and, looking back upon what we had been
called upon to endure of storm and darkness, and bitter, numbing cold
and wet, I rejoiced that summer was at hand, hoping that, before winter
came again, there would be peace, and that our nightly buffetings by
arctic winds, hail, snow, and icy seas would be at an end.

As these thoughts passed through my mind, my gaze fixed itself
contemplatively on the broad path of silver--now imperceptibly changing
to liquid gold--cast upon the surface of the sea by the setting moon;
and, as I gazed, I gradually became aware of a tiny black object, about
a mile away, on our port bow, rising and falling with the lazy heave of
the swell. In that mine-strewn sea the smallest and least conspicuous
floating object demanded one's instant and most careful attention, and
whipping my binoculars out of the case, strapped to the bridge rail, I
quickly focused them upon it. Through the glasses it looked very like
the top of a ship's galley funnel, though not quite so stout, and it was
moving as though to cross our hawse, for with the help of the glasses I
could see the little ripple of scintillating foam it piled up before it.

I knew in an instant what it was, for I had seen submarines before, and
at once recognised the slender object forging through the water out
yonder as the upper portion of a submarine's periscope.

Of course she had seen us, probably a good half-hour before, or she
would not be submerged; and the course she was steering indicated that
she was bent upon mischief.

I congratulated myself upon having sighted her in good time before
entering her danger zone, for the _Kasanumi_ was about a mile ahead of
the main body of our little fleet, and I felt that I should have time to
deal with her before the others came up. The question was: would she
attack the destroyer, or would she allow us to pass and reserve her
energies for the transports, under the impression