verything went as calculated. The steamer
could not see our cautious and hardly-shown periscope and continued
unconcerned on its course. The diving rudder in the "Centrale" worked
well and greatly facilitated my unobserved approach. I could clearly
distinguish the various objects on board, and saw the giant steamer at a
very short distance--how the captain was walking back and forth on the
bridge with a short pipe in his mouth, how the crew was scrubbing the
forward deck. I saw with amazement--a shiver went through me--a long line
of compartments of wood spread over the entire deck, out of which were
sticking black and brown horse heads and necks.

Oh, great Scott! Horses! What a pity! Splendid animals!

"What has that to do with it?" I continually thought. War is war. And
every horse less on the western front is to lessen England's defense. I
have to admit, however, that the thought which had to come was
disgusting, and I wish to make the story about it short.

Only a few degrees were lacking for the desired angle, and soon the
steamer would get into the correct focus. It was passing us at the right
distance, a few hundred meters.

"Torpedo ready!" I called down into the "Centrale."

It was the longed-for command. Every one on board held his breath. Now
the steamer's bow cut the line in the periscope--now the deck, the
bridge, the foremast--the funnel.

"Let go!"

A light trembling shook the boat--the torpedo was on its way. Woe, when
it was let loose!

There it was speeding, the murderous projectile, with an insane speed
straight at its prey. I could accurately follow its path by the light
wake it left in the water.

"Twenty seconds," counted the mate whose duty it was, with watch in
hand, to calculate the exact time elapsed after the torpedo was fired
until it exploded.

"Twenty-two seconds!"

Now it must happen--the terrible thing!

I saw the ship's people on the bridge had discovered the wake which the
torpedo was leaving, a slender stripe. How they pointed with their
fingers out across the sea in terror; how the captain, covering his
face with his hands, resigned himself to what must come. And next there
was a terrific shaking so that all aboard the steamer were tossed about
and then, like a volcano, arose, majestic but fearful in its beauty, a
two-hundred meter high and fifty-meter wide pillar of water toward the
sky.

"A full hit behind the second funnel!" I called down into the
"Centrale." The