"
"Anything go for you?"
"Well, if here isn't our old Bump!"
[Sidenote: Captain Ned begins his story.]
The crowd gathered round Captain Ned, who had established contact (this
is a military term quite out of place in a work on the navy) with the
eagerly sought, horribly elusive German.
"Go on, Ned, give us an earful. What time did you say it was?"
[Sidenote: An enemy submarine that escaped.]
"About 5 a.m." answered the captain. He stood leaning against a door,
and the fine head, the pallor, the touch of fatigue, all made a very
striking and appealing picture. "Say about eight minutes after five. I'd
just come up to take a look-see, and saw him just about two miles away,
on the surface, and moving right along. So I went under to get into a
good position, came up again, and let him have one. Well, he saw it just
as it was almost on him, swung her round, and dived like a ton of lead."
The audience listened in silent sympathy. One could see the
disappointment on the captain's face.
"Where was he?"
"About so-and-so."
"That's the jinx that got after the convoy sure as you live."
[Sidenote: Two blind ships that tried to find each other under water.]
The speaker had had his own adventures with the Germans. A month or so
before, he had shoved up his periscope and spotted a Fritz on the
surface in full noonday. The watchful Fritz, however, had been lucky
enough to see the enemy almost at once, and had dived. The American
followed suit.
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