he called.

Frank stepped forward and saluted.

"You will take one hundred men and join the storming party," said Jack.

At this moment the Brigadier was rubbing close to the Vindictive. This was
fortunate at the moment, for there was then no other means by which a
party from the Brigadier could reach the Mole.

Hurriedly Frank gathered the men, and then leaped from his own vessel to
the deck of the Vindictive. A moment later they joined Commander Adams and
his party.

Owing to the rolling of the ship, a most disconcerting motion was
imparted to the brows, the outer ends of which were "sawing" considerably
on the Mole parapet. Officers and men were equipped with Lewis guns,
bombs, ammunition, etc., and were under heavy machine-gun fire at close
range; add to this a drop of thirty feet between the ship and the Mole,
and some idea of the conditions which had to be faced may be realized.

Yet the storming of the Mole was carried out without the slightest delay
and without any apparent consideration of self preservation. Some of the
first men on the Mole dropped in their tracks under the German fire, but
the others pushed on, with the object of hauling one of the large Mole
anchors across the parapet.

The Brigadier arrived alongside the Mole three minutes after Frank and his
men had leaped to the deck of the other ship, followed by the little Iris.
Both suffered less in their approach, the Vindictive occupying all the
enemy's attention. The Gloucester also came up now to push the Vindictive
bodily on to the Mole to enable her to be secured, after doing which the
Gloucester landed her parties over that ship. Her men disembarked from her
bows on to the Vindictive, as it was found essential to continue to push
the Vindictive on to the Mole throughout the entire action.

This duty was magnificently carried out. Without the assistance of the
Gloucester very few of the storming parties from the Vindictive could
have landed, or could have re-embarked.

The landing from the Iris was made under even more trying circumstances.
She rolled heavily in the sea, which rendered the use of the scaling
ladders very difficult. But at this time, according to calculations,
enough men had been landed to complete the work.

The fighting on the Mole became hand-to-hand.

CHAPTER IX

THE BATTLE CONTINUES

A shell suddenly exploded among the Vindictive's foremost 7.5-inch
howitzer's marine crew. Many were killed or wounded. A