h of oil spread outwards from a miniature
maelstrom where vast bubbles heaved themselves up and broke; the air
was sickly with the smell of benzoline, and mingled with it were the
acrid fumes of gas and burnt clothing. A dark scum gathered in
widening circles, with here and there the white belly of a dead fish
catching the sun: a few scraps of wreckage went by, but no sign of a
man or what had once been a man.

"Pretty shot," said the First Lieutenant approvingly, and leaned over
the rail to superintend the dropping of a sinker and buoy. The
Commanding Officer said nothing. Beneath the tan his face was white,
and his hand, as he raised his glasses to sweep the horizon, trembled
slightly.

The Yeoman of Signals turned to Sir William and jerked his thumb at the
water. "Eh!" he said soberly, "yon had a quick call!"

"I ask for no other when my hour strikes," replied the Scientist.

"Maybe juist yeer hands are clean," said the Yeoman, and turned to
level his telescope at the trawler which was rapidly approaching with a
cloud of smoke reeling from her funnel and the waves breaking white
across her high bows.

"Here comes Gedge," observed the Lieutenant-Commander, speaking for the
first time, "foaming at the mouth and suffering from the reaction of
fright. Hark! He's started talking...."

Amid the cluster of figures in the trawler's bow stood a big man with a
megaphone to his mouth. The wind carried scraps of sentences across
the water.

"... Darned bunch of tricks aft.... How was I to know.... Scared
blue ... torpedo ... prisoners.... Blamed inventors...."

"Translate," said Sir William. The Lieutenant-Commander coughed
apologetically. "He's peevish," he said. "Thought it was us blowing
up at first. Wants to know why we wasted a torpedo: thinks he could
have captured her and taken the crew prisoners if we'd left it to him."

"Silly ass!" from the First Lieutenant. "How could we let him know he
was playing round with a Fritz? If we'd shown ourselves Fritz would
have torpedoed us!"

"I appreciate the compliment," began Sir William, "that he implies to
my device, but, as a matter of fact, I hardly think the apparatus is
sufficiently perfect yet----"

The Lieutenant-Commander laughed rather brutally. "He isn't paying
compliments. He went on to say he didn't want the assistance
of--er--new inventions to bag a Fritz once he's sighted him."

The First Lieutenant came quickly to the rescue. "Of co