ned that about an hour
before the periscope of a submarine had been stuck up not far from her,
then the craft had submerged, appeared again about a mile away, and
fired four shots, which let in enough water slowly to sink the patrol,
which before the war had been nothing but a dirty little trawler.

"Finding the crew of the patrol could take care of themselves in their
small boats and learning that the submarine had run over to the
westward, where we knew chain net traps to be laid, we circled in that
direction.

"Our powerful motors thrummed evenly. The water seemed to part ahead of
us, and the gunners squinted along the surface, looking for the glimpse
of a periscope or the first sign of the hull of the U-boat if she should
be proceeding awash.

CREW THRILLED WITH JOY.

"Suddenly, off to the west, we made out her periscope. Intense joy
thrilled our little crew. She was inshore from us. She was between our
circular course and the chain nets--in the trap. The periscope we had
seen might be a dummy, for a submarine frequently casts loose a phoney
periscope to draw fire, but, at any rate, she must have been between us
and the nets if she cut it loose.

"Presently, probably after a look around, the periscope suddenly
disappeared, and we knew it was a real one with a German U-boat on the
end of it. Like a flock of falcons we were swooping down on the prey.

"Abruptly the lead boat comes to a dead stop and lists heavily to
starboard. Evidently something is wrong. We see men crawl out over the
stern and fish around with boat hooks and poles. Cold as it is, one man
goes overboard and remains under water so long we could not believe he
would come up alive. The boat had fouled the chain nets.

"Circling round in an ever smaller radius, we search the water for a
periscope, a shadow, or the conventional 'streak of dirty grease' or
'line of bubbles.'

"All of us have towing torpedoes out. These are bombs on long cables
which are towed astern and sink to a certain specified depth. If the
cable fouls anything at all, as the boat goes ahead, the bomb pulls up
to it, and, when it bumps, it explodes.

"We are in line. Suddenly there is a crash and a roar just ahead of us.
I am thrown off my feet. Barrels of water splash down into our cockpit
and roll off the decks. The bow lifts itself clean for a second. I think
that the submarine has blown us up. Perhaps I am dead already.

"Then we settle down again, and except for a sc