aptain.

"Starboard two points," repeated the quartermaster on duty at the
wheel, giving the steering wheel a sharp turn. "She's on the mark,
sir."

"Hold it."

"You think it is a wreck, sir?" questioned the watch officer.

"I know no more about it than do you. Naturally it is some vessel in
distress, else they would not be making distress signals. You say you
caught only the flash--you did not get a sight of the rocket itself?"

"No, sir. I saw the flash, that was all."

The captain glanced up into the darkness.

"She should be ten miles away, then. We ought to be heading about dead
on, if your sight was correct. Full speed ahead, both engines."

The throb of the engines far below them rose to a steady purr. The
"Long Island" plunged ahead, lurching more violently than before. It
was an unsafe speed in such a sea, but perhaps there were human lives
at stake off there in that wild swirl of water, and if so it was the
first duty of an American seaman to go to their rescue, however great
the peril to himself and crew might be.

"There she goes again," shouted the lookout up by the searchlight.

"I caught it that time. The vessel lies dead ahead. Hold your course,
quartermaster."

"Aye, aye, sir."

"Ord'ly, turn out the executive officer. Tell him to order the boat
crews and the first and second divisions out. Be quick about it."

"Aye, aye, sir."

Boatswains' whistles trilled faintly from the depths of the battleship;
boatswains' mates roared out their commands, piping the men from their
sleep, and a few minutes later the superstructure was thronged with
half-clad figures. Every man of them was soaked to the skin the
instant he reached the deck, but unmindful of this every eye was
peering into the black mist ahead, the men anxiously questioning each
other as to the cause of their being piped out.

No one seemed to know, but older heads shrewdly suspected that
somewhere off ahead was a sister ship in dire distress.

"Boatswain's mate!" again came the warning call of the watch officer.

"Aye, aye, sir."

"Pipe all hands to stations."

Once again whistles trilled. The entire crew of the battleship was
being called to stations, for again the commanding officer had seen the
warning signals shooting up into the sky. Powerful glasses were being
leveled at the black abyss ahead, but as yet the officers, of whom
there was now quite a group assembled on the bridge, were unable to
make out any