hree or
four points off our starboard bow. There had been reports of noonday
raids on Calais for several days, and I surmised that those were Hun
machines returning from some such stunt.

"Holding to an even course, the squadron passed over a mile or more to
the starboard of us, and it was already some distance astern when I saw
one of the machines--I think it was the one leading the 'V'--detach
itself from the others and head swiftly back in our direction. There was
nothing out of the way in this action at a time when every ship was held
in more or less suspicion by both belligerents, and it seemed to me so
right and proper that the chap should come and have a look at us, in
case he had some doubts, that I did not even think it necessary to call
the 'Old Man' to the bridge, or even send him word of what I took to be
no more than a passing incident.

"Descending swiftly as he approached, the Hun passed over the ship
diagonally--from port quarter to starboard bow--at a height of six or
eight hundred feet.

"'That'll end it,' I thought. 'Our marks, and the fact that we're in
ballast, ought to satisfy him.'

"But no. Back he came. This time he was a hundred feet or so lower, and
flying on a line directly down our course, passing over us from bow to
stern. Again he swung round and repeated the manoeuvre in reverse,
this time at a height of not more than four hundred feet. He had done
this five or six times before it occurred to me that he was taking
practice sights for bombing; but not even then, when I saw him with his
eye glued to his dropping-instrument, did it occur to me that he was
doing anything more than trying his sights. It was at the next 'run' or
two that the thing began to get on my nerves, and I called up the
skipper on the voice-pipe and told him I did not quite like the look of
the circus.

"The Old Man was in the middle of his afternoon siesta, but he tumbled
out and came puffing up to the bridge at the double. He was no more
inclined to take the thing seriously than I was, but, on the
off-chance--which your careful skipper is always thinking of in the back
of his brain-box--he rang up 'More steam' on the engine-room telegraph,
and ordered the quartermaster to start zig-zagging, a stunt we had
already practised a bit in the event of a submarine attack.

"'If he's just trying his eye,' said the Old Man, 'it'll give him all
the better practice to follow us; while, it he's up to mischief, it may
fuss h