me with a good square butt at a U-boat, and I'm
very happy to say that it didn't happen on this occasion. I don't think
that we even so much as grazed his 'jump-string'; but the whole length
of him was in plain sight sloping away from his surface swirl, and it
was easy as picking ripe pippins to plant an 'ash-can' just where it was
needed. The only aggravating thing about it was that, although oil came
boiling up in floods for three days, there was never a Hun, nor even an
unmistakable fragment of U-boat wreckage, picked up as a souvenir.
There was never any doubt about the sinking, however, for the trawlers
located the wreck on the bottom with a sweep, and gave it a few more
'cans' for luck.

"But the best evidence in my own mind," concluded D----, pulling the
blankets up higher over his shoulders as he settled back into the bunk,
"is the fact that, six weeks later, the identical stunt I had tried this
time actually lured another Fritz up to eat out of my hand almost
exactly as I had been planning for. Now, if that first one had really
survived and been able to return to base, it is certain that its skipper
would have told what he saw, and that there would have been a general
order (such as came out some months later when they finally did twig the
game) warning all U-boats against coming up to gloat at close range over
burning M.L.s. The fact that this second one was such easy picking
proves beyond a doubt that the other never got back."

"That last was the one you 'threw the hammer' at, wasn't it?" I asked,
leaning far out to make my words carry down to D----'s now
blanket-muffled ears.

"Yes," came the wool-dulled answer. "Tell you some other night. Gotta
get warm now. Toddy can's empty. Make a tent of the blankets with your
knees, and take the electric heater to bed in it, if you can't stop
shivering any other way. Good night."

CHAPTER IX

"Q"

At three miles, as seen from the bridge of the battleship, the small
craft which was steering a course that would bring her across our bows
in the course of the next few minutes was absolutely nondescript,
completely defying classification. A mile closer, however, it appeared
to be as plain as day that she was some ancient fishing boat, but
bluffer of bow and broader of beam than the oldest of trawlers or
drifters in the service. It was only when she was right ahead, and but
six or eight cables' lengths distant, that a vagrant sun-patch came
dancing along the