precision,' and
so it follows that when you hit what you are after with one it must be
largely a matter of luck. Judgment? Oh, yes, a certain amount of it, but
I'd rather have luck than judgment any day. At any rate, this was my
lucky day. Within fifteen seconds from the moment I felt the jolt of the
detonating charge Fritz's conning-tower was breaking surface on my
starboard beam. Helm had been put hard-a-port as the charge was dropped,
so that all the starboard guns were bearing on the conning-tower the
instant it bobbed up. This was right on the outer rim of the 'boil' of
the explosion--just where it would be expected--and, of course, it
presented an easy target. To say it was riddled would be putting it
mildly. One shot alone from the foremost six-pounder would have made it
out of the question for it to dive again, even had other complications
which had already set in left it in shape to face submergence.

"A second or two more, and the whole length of our bag was showing,
riding fairly level fore-and-aft, but with a slight list to starboard.
We had now turned, and from our position on the submarine's port quarter
could plainly see the crew come bobbing out of the hatch on to the deck.
Each of them had his hands lifted in the approved 'Kamerad' fashion, and
took good care to keep them there as long as they noticed any active
movement around the business ends of our guns. As a matter of fact, as
there had been no colours flying to strike, those lifted hands were the
only tangible tokens of surrender we received. As we had her at our
mercy, however, they looked conclusive enough for me, and I sent a boat
away as quickly as it could be lowered and manned.

"It was not until this boat returned that I learned of the two British
merchant marine officers who had been aboard her through it all. The
Huns had crowded them out in their stampede for the hatches, so that
they had been the very last to reach the deck. Mr. X----, who was in
charge of the whaler, compensated as fully as he could for this by
taking them off first. The experiences they had been through had been
just about as terrible as men could ever be called upon to face; and
yet, when they clambered aboard _Flash_, they were smiling, clear of
head and eye, and altogether quite unshaken. You've certainly got to
take off your hat to these merchant marine chaps; they've fought half
the battle for the Navy.

"The story they had to tell of what they had seen and he