them against each other. At present, my
instructions are to deal with the lighter craft only: destroyers and
that sort of thing, you know."

"But don't you fire on them?" said Lennard. "What would happen if they
got a torpedo under you?"

"Well," said Erskine, "as a matter of fact I don't think destroyers are
worth shooting at. Our guns are meant for bigger game. But it's no good
trying to explain things now. You'll see, pretty soon, and you'll learn
more in half an hour than I could tell you in four hours."

They were clear of the harbour by this time and running out at about ten
knots between the two old North and South Spithead forts on the top of
each of which one of the new fourteen-inch thousand-pounders had been
mounted on disappearing carriages.

"Now," he continued, "if we're going to find them anywhere, we shall
find them here, or hereabouts. My orders are to smash everything that I
can get at."

"Fairly comprehensive," said Lennard.

"Yes, Lennard, and it's an order that I'm going to fill. We may as well
quicken up a bit now. You understand, Castellan is looking after the
guns, and his sub., Mackenzie is communicating orders to my Chief
Engineer, who looks after the speed."

"And the speed?" asked Lennard.

"I'll leave you to judge that when we get to business," said Erskine,
putting his forefinger on one of the buttons on the left-hand side of
the board as he spoke.

The next moment Lennard felt the rubber-covered floor of the
conning-tower jump under his feet. All the coast lights were
extinguished but there was a half-moon and he saw the outlines of the
shore slip away faster behind them. The eastern heights of the Isle of
Wight loomed up like a cloud and dropped away astern.

"Pretty fast, that," he said.

"Only twenty-five knots," replied Erskine, as he gave the steering-wheel
a very gentle movement and swung the _Ithuriel's_ head round to the
eastward. "If these chaps are going to make a rush in the way Togo did
at Port Arthur, they've got to do it between Selsey Bill and Nettlestone
Point. If they're mad enough to try the other way between Round Tower
Point and Hurst Castle, they'll get blown out of the water in very small
pieces, so we needn't worry about them there. Our business is to keep
them out of this side. Ah, look now, there are two or three of them
there. See, ahead of the port bow. We'll tackle these gentlemen first."

Lennard looked out through the narrow semicircular window