ly,
Frank threw out a hand and grasped Jack by the arm.

Another series of startled cries, the tinkling of a bell in the engine
room; a shock as the engines were reversed--but it was too late.

The two British warships came together with a terrible crash!

So great was the force of the shock that Frank, standing on the far
side, was thrown clear over the rail. But the lad's grasp upon his
chum's arm was so tight that it dragged Jack along with him; and the
two boys fell into the sea together.

Aboard both British ships all was confusion now. With startled cries,
men rushed on deck. Unable to see in the dense fog, they became panic
stricken. While these same men would have faced death bravely in
battle, they were completely bewildered at this moment.

In vain the officers aboard both vessels sought to bring some semblance
of order out of the confusion. Something had gone wrong with the
electric lighting apparatus on both vessels. There was no light. The
fog was as thick as ever. The crews stampeded for the rails, but at the
rails they hesitated, for they did not wish to throw themselves into
the great unknown.

Next came the stampede for life preservers. Men fought over their
possession, whereas, in cooler moments, hardly a man aboard either ship
who would not willingly have given the life preservers to companions.

Had the men thrown themselves into the sea immediately, it is likely
that many of them would have been saved; but their hesitation cost them
dearly.

In vain did the reversed engines of both ships work. The sharp steel
bow of the _Indefatigable_ had become so firmly embedded in the side of
the _Queen Mary_ that it could not be unloosened.

And so the two battleships sank, together in their last moments as they
had been when they had faced almost certain destruction under the
muzzles of the great German guns such a short time before.

Now men from both ships hurled themselves into the sea in an effort to
cheat the waters of their prey. Commanders and officers, however,
realizing that there was no hope of life even in the sea, so swiftly
were the ships sinking, stood calmly on the bridges and awaited the
end. For, they realized, the suction would be so strong when the
vessels took their final plunge, that all those anywhere near in the
water would be drawn under.

Captain Raleigh sent a hail across the water in a loud voice.

"Are you there, Reynolds?"

"Right here, Raleigh," came back the respo