the island fortress, showing their hulls
above water and followed by the two detailed destroyers.

The mist thickened. Still more slowly and cautiously went the British
submersibles, and while they went above water, five of their sister
craft traveled under the surface. Here was the bait for the German ships
under Helgoland's guns. Would they bite?

The Germans soon gave the answer. First there crept out a German
destroyer which took a good look at the situation and then gave wireless
signals to some twenty more of her type, which soon came out to join
her. The twenty-one little and speedy German boats bravely came out and
chased the two British destroyers and three submarines, while a German
seaplane slowly circled upward to see if the surrounding regions
harbored enemies. Presumably the airman found what he sought for he
soon flew back to report to Helgoland. The peaceful aspect of the waters
to the east of the island immediately changed, as a squadron of light
cruisers weighed anchor and put out after the retiring Britishers.

Before a description of the fighting can be given it is necessary to
understand the plan of the fight as a whole. Assuming that the page on
which these words are printed represents a map of the North Sea and that
the points of the compass are as they would be on an ordinary chart, we
have the island of Helgoland, half an inch long and a quarter of an inch
wide, situated in the lower right-hand corner of this page, with about
half an inch separating its eastern side from the right edge of the page
and the same distance separating it from the bottom. The lower edge of
the page may represent the adjoining coasts of Germany and Holland, and
the right-hand edge may represent the coast of the German province of
Schleswig and the coast of Denmark.

At seven o'clock on the morning of August 28 the positions of the
fighting forces were as follows: The decoy British submarines were
making a track from Helgoland to the northwest, pursued by a flotilla of
German submarines, destroyers, and torpedo boats, and a fleet of light
cruisers. On the west--the left edge of the page, halfway up--there were
the British cruisers _Arethusa_ and _Fearless_ accompanied by flotillas,
and steaming eastward at a rate that brought them to the rear of the
German squadron of light cruisers, thus cutting off the latter from the
fortress. In the southwest--the lower left-hand corner of the
page--there was stationed a squadro