"Bedad, she signals to us to let her come aboard," said "Four-Eyes,"
who watched her intently.

"Answer that we'll see her in chips first," said Black, and he called
for Karl and made signs to him.

"If so be as ye don't come to, he'll be about to fire upon ye," cried
"Four-Eyes," again, who stood at the flag-line, and this time Black
thought before he answered--

"Then parley with 'em; we'll come alongside and hear their jaw."

There was a leer of positive devilry on his face as he said this, and
he beckoned me into the conning-tower, when he closed the tower and
bade me watch. Those on the battle-ship made quite sure of us now, for
they steamed on and came within three hundred yards of us. Black
watched them as a beast watches the unsuspecting prey. He stood, his
face knit in savage lines, his hand upon the bell. I looked from the
glass, and saw that no man was visible upon our decks, that our engines
had ceased to move. We were motionless. Then in a second the bells rang
out. There was again that frightful grating and tearing in the
engine-room. The nameless ship came round to her helm with a mighty
sweep: she foamed and plunged in the seas; she turned her ram straight
at the other; and, groaning as a great stricken wounded beast, she
roared onward to the voyage of death. I knew then the fearful truth:
Black meant to sink the cruiser with his ram. I shall never forget that
moment of terror, that grinding of heated steel, that plunge into the
seas. Holding with all my strength to the seat of the tower, I waited
for the crash, and in the suspense hours seemed to pass. At last, there
was under the sea a mighty clap as of submarine thunder. Dashed
headlong from my post, I lay bruised and wounded upon the floor of
steel. The roof above me rocked; the walls shook and were bent; my ears
rang with the deafening roar in them; seas of foam mounted before the
glass; shrieks and the sound of awful rending and tearing drowned other
shouts of men going to their death. And through all was the hysterical
yelling of Black, his cursing, his defiance, his elation.

"Come and see," he roared, dragging me by the collar to the gallery;
"come and see. They sink, the lubbers! They go to blazes every one of
them. Look at their faces, the crawling scum. Ha! ha! Die, you vermin!
as you meant me to die; fill your skins with water, you sharks! I spit
on you! Boys, do you hear them crying to you? Music, fine music! Who'll
dance when the de