the time for Fritz,
if he is going to get us at all."

Arm in arm they made the circle of the deck. The mist, lying like a
bank upon the sea, shifted the horizon to within a thousand yards of the
ship.

"I wish I knew just what lies behind that bank there," said Captain
Hopeton, pointing over the bow.

For some moments they stood, peering idly into the mist.

"By Jove, there IS something there," said Barry, who had a hawk's eye.

"You've got 'em too, eh," laughed Hopeton. "I've had 'em for the last
forty-eight hours. I've been 'seein' things' all night."

"But there is," insisted Barry, pointing over the port bow.

"What is it like?" asked Captain Neil, while Hopeton ran for his glass.

"I'll tell you what it's like--exactly like the eye of an oyster in its
pulp. And, by Jove, there's another!" added Barry excitedly.

"I can't see anything," said Captain Neil.

"But I can," insisted Barry. "Look there, Hopeton!"

Hopeton fixed his glass upon the mist, where Barry pointed.

"You're right! There is something, and there are two of them."

"Give the Pilot the glass, Hopeton," said Neil. "He's got a good eye."

"There are two ships, boys, as I'm a sinner, but what they are, I don't
know," cried Barry in a voice tense with excitement. "Here, Neil, take
the glass. You know about ships."

Long and earnestly, Captain Neil held the glass in the direction
indicated.

"Boys, by all that's holy, they're destroyers," he said at length in a
low voice.

Even as they gazed, the two black dots rapidly took shape, growing
out of the mist into two sea monsters, all head and shoulders, boring
through the seas, each flinging high a huge comb of white spray, and
with an indescribable suggestion of arrogant, resistless power, bearing
down upon the ship at furious speed.

"Destroyers!" shouted Captain Neil, in a voice that rang through the
ship. "By gad, destroyers!"

There was no question of friend or foe; only Great Britain's navy rode
over those seas immune.

Upon every hand the word was caught up and passed along. In a
marvellously short space of time, the rails, the boats, the rigging, all
the points of vantage were thronged with men, roaring, waving, cheering,
like mad.

With undiminished speed, each enveloped in its cloud of spray, the
destroyers came, one on each side, rushed foaming past, swept in a
circle around the ship and took their stations alongside, riding quietly
at half speed like bulldogs tugging at