t.

[Illustration: A MONITOR

The bulge of the "blister" will be seen on the water-line near the bow.

_British Official Photograph_]

How a large fleet of unarmed fishing vessels were saved and a zeppelin
raid on the east coast of England prevented by the timely action of an
armed auxiliary proves once again the truth of the old military axiom
that it is the unexpected which always happens in war.

It had been one of the few really hot summer days granted by a grudging
climate. The sea was a sheet of glass, the sky a cloudless blue, except
where tinged with the golden glow of sunset. Lieutenant Smith smiled
somewhat grimly as he mounted the little iron ladder and squeezed
through the narrow doorway into the wheel-house. He nodded to the
skipper--an old trawlerman acting as a chief warrant officer for
navigational duties--as a signal for the mooring ropes to be cast off,
and mechanically rang the engine-room telegraph. He had done all these
things in the same way and at the same time of day for nearly two years.
For a long while he had gone forth hopefully, saying to himself each
cruise, "It's bound to come soon," but as the weeks grew into months,
and the months promised to extend into years, disappointment gained the
mastery and duty became appallingly monotonous and uninteresting.

This, however, did not cause him to work less strenuously or to neglect
to watch the large fishing fleet which he guarded on four nights out of
the seven, but each letter he received from old friends in other
branches of the King's service brought tidings of excitement, rapid
promotion, or at least a little of the pomp and circumstance of war, and
he saw himself at the end of it all with nothing to show for years of
danger, hardship and impaired health. The worry and the lonely monotony,
trivial as he knew them to be, were slowly sapping his nerve and
vitality.

The trawler glided from the harbour on to the broad expanse of tranquil
sea, now aglow with the lights of a summer sunset. Slowly the coast-line
faded into the blue haze of distance, and all around the watery plain
was mottled with the shadowy patches made by the light evening breeze.

Settling himself in an old deck-chair, which he kept in the wheel-house,
Smith lit his pipe and allowed his thoughts to wander, but every now and
then his eyes would search the sea from slowly darkening east to mellow
west.

Although the summer was well advanced, there were but few hours of