s, if we don't sheer too close and see that the guns are still there.
And, look now, the tricks they're at!"

Outlined in incandescents, the semaphores of a dozen ships were being
worked most industriously. "Jerk up and down like the legs and arms of
the mechanical dolls at the theatre, don't they? But these here could be
dancing for something more than the people's amusement if 'twas
necessary. And what are they saying? Oh, most likely it's 'The
compliments of the admiral, and will you come aboard the flag-ship and
try a taste of punch?' And 'With pleasure,' that other one is saying.
And they'll be lowering away the launch and no doubt be having a
pleasant chat presently. And they could just as easily be saying (if
'twas the right time), 'Pipe to quarters and load with shell'--just as
easy; and they could revolve the near turret of that one, and ten
seconds after they cut loose you and me, if we weren't already killed by
rush of air, would be brushing the salt water from our eyes and clawing
around for a stray piece of wreckage to hang on to. Just as easy--but
look at 'em now again!"

The search-lights were paralleling and intersecting, now revealing the
perpendicular depths beside the vessel, and now flooding the sky. Twenty
of them, simultaneously flashing, were sweeping the surface of the
Sound, one instant outlining the arbored Long Island shore, the next
betraying the beaches of Connecticut. One, beaming westerly, disclosed a
loaded excursion steamer half-way to Hell Gate, and, a moment later,
turning a hand-spring, picked up in its diverging path the Fall River
steamer miles away to the eastward.

"The torpedo-boats'd have the devil's own time trying to lay aboard
to-night, wouldn't they? And yet if 'twas cloudy 'twould be the
submarines! Did you see them to-day? Weren't they cute--like little
whale pups setting on the water--yes. They say they've got them where
they turn somersaults now. Great, yes--but terrible, too, when you think
they're liable to come your way some fine day. Imagine yourself, all at
once, some night when you ought to be sound asleep in your hammock,
finding yourself, afore you're yet fair awake, so high in the sky that
you can almost reach out and take hold of the handle of the Dipper! And
when you come down and get the official report, learning that one of
those cute little playthings had been making a subaqueous call.

"It's ninety-odd years since the American navy proved it could do a