adies' while the
U-boat was sizing us up, then to join for a few minutes in the 'panic'
following the hoped-for attack, and finally to beat it to their action
stations.

"That a 'baby' was by far the most effective disguise for the first
lance-bomb we hoped to chuck home was obvious at the outset. Both of
them had heads, their general shapes (when dressed) were not dissimilar,
while the 'long clothes' of the infant was found to have a real
steadying effect on the missile, on the same principle that 'streamers'
act to bring an air-bomb down nose-first. Of course, a child in arms,
like this one was to be, wasn't just the kind of thing one would take
pleasure yachting; but I knew the Huns took their nurslings to beer
gardens, and thought that that might make them think that the
Englanders--who were incomprehensible folk anyhow--might take this
strange way of accustoming their young to the waves which they sang so
loudly of ruling.

"The decisive consideration, however, was the fact a baby was the only
thing except a jewel-case that a panicky woman in fear of being
torpedoed would stick to. As you can't get a lance-bomb in a jewel-case,
it was plainly 'baby' or nothing.

"In the end, because I was afraid that none of the feminine make-ups was
quite good enough not to awaken suspicion at close range--I decided that
the heaving over of the 'baby' should be done by a 'gentleman' instead
of by a 'lady.' As one of the seamen put it, it was only 'nateral that
the nipper's daddy 'ud be lookin' arter 'im in time of danger,' and I
had read of sailors being entrusted with children on sinking ships. The
man I picked for the job--the 'father of the che-ild,' as he soon came
to be called--was not the one who had proved the best in distance
throwing in the trials, but rather one on whose cold-blooded nerve I
knew I could count in any extremity.

"He was a Seaman Gunner, named R----, and was lost a year ago when a
rather desperate 'Q' stunt he had volunteered for miscarried. He had
just the touch of the histrionic desirable for the intimate little
affair in question, and the way he played his part fully justified my
selecting him."

K---- leaned back in his chair and blew smoke rings for a minute before
resuming his story. "There are some kind of stunts, like this one I've
been trying to bring off for the last two or three months," he said,
"that always seem to hang fire; and there are others where, from first
to last, everything c