thus
hurried to the succour of others in the face of fearful odds.
Over-rashness may have been displayed on occasion. But let us regard
another side of the question. What confidence and spirit it must give
to our men to feel that, if menaced by deadly peril, they can rely
upon their comrades to come to their help if it is humanly possible to
do so! A Navy that has no soul, in which a commander will coldly
calculate the exact risk before deciding whether the game is quite
worth the candle, will never achieve great things.

So the flagship, the _Fearless_, and the two destroyer flotillas,
having turned, steamed back to the eastward for one hour and were once
more within a few miles of Heligoland. They found themselves on a sea
empty of ships; no more wireless messages from the _Lurcher_ reached
the _Arethusa_, and as nothing could be seen or heard of that vessel,
the quest was at last abandoned and the order was given to steam once
more to the westward for home.

The mist now gradually thickened. At about 10 a.m., shortly after the
squadron had turned, a light cruiser was seen coming out of the fog on
the _Arethusa's_ port quarter. For a second or so it was thought that
she was one of our own ships. On being challenged she flashed some
signals. Then a ripple of flame ran along her sides, and she displayed
her true colours by opening fire on the flagship. The light cruiser
_Fearless_ and the destroyers, though they had but few torpedoes left,
attacked her in a most gallant fashion and succeeded in driving her
off. But, doubtless knowing that the _Arethusa_ was in a crippled
condition and that other German ships were coming up, she soon
returned to resume the attack. And now another enemy light cruiser
suddenly loomed on the _Arethusa's_ starboard quarter and joined in
the fight. The British ships were now fighting a retiring action, our
destroyers doing splendid work, zigzagging over the sea and losing no
opportunity of vigorously attacking the enemy, thus covering the
retirement.

But now there came up on our squadron's front yet another enemy light
cruiser, the _Mainz_, to take part in the action. So our ships were
being attacked on all sides, and despite the bravery of the defence
the situation must have appeared somewhat desperate. Our destroyers
attacked the new arrivals, giving them no respite. The _Mainz_ put up
a great fight against the destroyers that were harassing her. Her fire
was accurate; she put two of