ubmarines, which
glided westwards into the smoky red afterglow, leaving the bitter cold
to finish the work of death.

. . . . . . . .

A big armed liner of the Tenth Cruiser Squadron had heard the distant
firing and came upon the scene just before darkness finally closed over.
Four bodies were still lashed to a raft, but in all except one life was
extinct.

When the doctors bent over the half-frozen form in which a flicker still
lingered they shook their heads. Death waged a stern battle even for
this last relic, but life triumphed, and when the agony of returning
animation had ceased the sole survivor told the cruiser's mess how
Trawler No. 1 had lost her refit.

CHAPTER XX

THE RAIDER

EVERYONE familiar with English history knows that it was a severe gale
which destroyed the scattered and defeated units of the Spanish Armada
in 1588, and that, in more modern times, it was the coming of darkness
which prevented the British Grand Fleet from turning the victory of
Jutland into a decisive rout. Such historical examples of the effect of
the weather, and even ordinary climatic changes, on the course of naval
operations could be multiplied almost indefinitely. Not only are the
movements of the barometer important factors to be considered in the
major operations of naval war but also in minor sea fights.

Comparatively few people are, however, aware that one of the largest and
most destructive of German mine-fields was laid off the British coast
during the Great War by a surface ship which escaped detection through
darkness and storm.

* * * * *

The barometer had fallen rapidly, and clouds rolled up from the
north-west in ragged grey banks which scudded ominously over a cold
steely blue sky. For some days the sea had been moderately calm, but it
was mid-winter and quiescence of the elements could not be expected to
last. Slowly the face of the Atlantic grew lined with white. It began
with a moaning wind which soon developed into a stiff gale, accompanied
by heavy storms of sleet and snow.

One of his Majesty's ships coming up the west coast of Ireland found
herself heading into the teeth of the gale. As the afternoon wore on the
wind increased in violence and the ship rolled and plunged heavily,
smothering herself in clouds of flying spume. The driving sleet made it
difficult to see more than a cable's length in any direction,