omes up to the scratch on time, just like a film
drama. That first one I'm telling you about was like that,
everybody--even to the U-boat--coming on to its cue. Indeed, when I
think of it now, the whole show seems more like a big movie than
anything else.

"By the time we were letter perfect in our parts, there came two or
three days of just the kind of a storm I wanted to make a good excuse
for a dinky little pleasure boat being out in the middle of the North
Sea. I took care, of course, to be 'blown' to the last position at
which an enemy submarine had been reported.

"Then, where a destroyer or a M.L. might have cruised round for a month
without sighting anything but fog and the smoke of some of our own ships
on the horizon, we picked up a Fritz running brazenly on the surface the
first morning. That was first blood for my harmless appearance right
there, for he must have seen us some time previously of course, and had
we looked in the least warlike, would have submerged before even our
lookout spotted his conning-tower.

"As it was, he simply began closing us at full speed, firing as he came.
It was rotten shooting at first, as shooting from the very poor platform
a submarine affords usually is, but, at about three thousand yards, he
put a shell through the fo'c'sl', luckily above the water-line. The next
minute or two was the most anxious time I had, for, if he made up his
mind to do it that way, there was nothing to prevent his sticking off
there and putting us down with shell-fire.

"Perhaps if the two or three shots which followed had been hits, that is
what he would have done. It was probably his disgust at the fact that
they were all 'overs' that determined him to close in and finish the job
with bombs. Possibly, also, the fact that I appeared to be starting to
abandon ship at this juncture convinced him finally that the yacht had
no fight in her, and it may well be that the temptation to loot had
something to do with his decision. I could never make quite sure on
those points, for Herr Skipper never confided what was in his mind to
the one officer who survived him. At any rate, he came nosing
nonchalantly in and did just what I had been praying for the last month
he would do--poked right up alongside. The heavy sea that had been
running for the last two or three days had gone down during the night,
so that he was able to stand in pretty close without running much danger
of bumping.

"The extent of my ab