the _D'Estang_ would have to turn in the same direction in which the
_Arizona_ was ploughing along at a twelve-knot speed. In making this
turn she could not possibly clear, but must strike the battleship. On
the other hand she was too near to be stopped in time to avoid going
across the bows of that great plunging mass of drab steel, and being
cut in two.

Anne, crouching immovable, her eyes fixed on Armitage, saw his head
half turn in her direction, then with the automatic movement of a
machine, he reached for the port engine room telegraph and with a jerk
threw the port engine full speed astern. The bridge quivered as though
it were being torn from its place; throughout the hull sounded a great
metallic clanking. There came a new motion. The destroyer was
spinning like a top, the bow almost at a standstill, the stem swinging
in a great arc.

It was like the working out of a problem in dynamics. Nearer they
came. Anne could now make out the great shape of the battleship; the
dull funnels belching black clouds of smoke, which, merging with the
night, were immediately absorbed; the shadowy, basket-like masts, from
which the search-light rays went forth; the long, vaguely protruding
twelve-inch guns. A whistle, tremulous and piercing, shrilled along
the battleship's deck; dull white figures were clambering into the port
life boats. Still closer now! Anne could hear the heavy swish of
waters under the _Arizona's_ bows. Her nerves were tight strung,
prepared for the crash of steel against steel and the shock of the
submersion. There was no sound from the _Arizona_ now. Her bridge had
echoed with shouts of warning. The time for that had passed. Armitage
had not uttered a sound. Straight he stood by the telegraph, tense and
rigid, his hand clutching the lever.

Around came the stern with fearful momentum, so close--but clear of the
giant hull--that the gunner's mate at the stern torpedo tube took his
chew of tobacco and, as he afterwards put it, "torpedoed the battleship
with his eyes shut." Now the stern was pointed directly toward the
_Arizona_, hardly five yards away. Armitage, bending over the
telegraph, jerked sharply upon the lever, throwing the port engine full
speed ahead again. He stood up and glanced quickly astern. Like a
live thing, the _D'Estang_ jumped clear. Sara leaned heavily on Anne's
shoulder with little tearless sobs. But Anne, crouching in the
position she had maintained since t