spouts thrown up by the fall of shot,
and, although two more destroyers joined in the hunt, which was
continued all that day and on to nightfall, no further trace of him was
discovered. Even if he did not sink at once, the chances are all against
his being in shape ever to get back to base. But just the same," he
concluded, with a wistful smile, "it would have been comforting to have
had something more tangible than the memory of an oil smell and
thirty-six hours without sleep as souvenirs of that little brush."

* * * * *

It had been dark for an hour where the waters of the River Lee were
streaming seaward with the ebbing tide, but the tree-tops along the
crest of the eastward hills were silvering in the first rays of the
rising moon. The signalman was looking at it when I bade him good night
and started down the ladder to the main deck.

"I hope it isn't a blue one," he said with a grin; "we're expecting to
go out again tomorrow."

CHAPTER VII

ADRIATIC PATROL

Boring into a North Sea blizzard in a destroyer off the coast of Norway
is not exactly the kind of thing that one would think would turn a man's
thoughts to sunny climes, with scented breezes blowing over flowery
fields, and cobalt skies arching over sapphire waters, and all that sort
of thing; but the human mind moves in a mysterious way, and that is just
what Lieutenant K---- started talking about the night we were
shepherding the northbound convoy together, after it had been
temporarily scattered by what had proved to be an abortive German light
cruiser raid.

Sea-booted, mufflered and goggled, and ponderous where his half-inflated
"Gieve" bulged beneath his ample duffle-coat, he leaned over the
starboard rail of the bridge for a space to get the clear view ahead
that the frost-layer on the wind-screen denied him from anywhere
inboard. Then, just ducking a sea that rolled in tumultuously fluent
ebony over the forecastle gun and smothered the bridge in flying spray,
he nipped across and threw a half-Nelson around a convenient stanchion
before the pitch, as she dived down the back of the retreating wave,
threw him against the port rail.

"Got 'em all in line again," he said, pushing his face close to mine.
"That's something to be thankful for, anyhow. Didn't expect to round up
half of 'em before we had to stand away to pick up the southbound. Piece
of uncommon good luck. Now we can stand easy for a spell."

I