and although there was no moon, the stars gave sufficient
light for him to see the black tracery of masts and yards lifting
themselves above the horizon.

How still the looming ship lay. There was scarcely sea enough to
tremble the top-hamper of the unsuspecting man-of-war. A faint film of
smoke falling lazily from her funnel in the quiet air, with her riding
and side-lights, were the only signs of life about her. No more
peaceful-looking object floated over the ocean apparently.

"It would be a pity," reflected the man at the wheel for an instant,
"to strike her so." But the thought vanished so soon as it had been
formulated. His heart leaped in his breast like the hound when he
launches himself in that last spring which hurls him on his quarry.
Another moment--a few more seconds--

"That will be our game," whispered Lacy to the artillery captain, in a
voice in which his feelings spoke.

"Yes."

They were slowly approaching nearer. The bearings of the cranks and
screws had been well oiled, and the _David_ slipped through the water
without a sound. She was so nearly submerged that she scarcely rippled
the surface of the sea. There was no white line of foam to betray her
movement through the black water. It was almost impossible for any one
to detect the approach of the silent terror. There was nothing showing
above water except the flat hatch cover, and that to an unpractised eye
looked much like a drifting plank.

Yet there were sharp eyes on the ship, and no negligent watch was kept
either. When the _David_ was perhaps two hundred feet away, she was
seen. The steadiness of her movement proclaimed a thing intelligently
driven.

A sharp, sudden cry from the forecastle ahead of them rang through the
night. It was so loud and so fraught with alarm that it came in a
muffled note to the men in the depths of the torpedo boat. A bugle call
rang out, a drum was beaten. The erstwhile silent ship was filled with
tumult and clamor.

"They have seen us!" said Lacy. "Ahead!" he cried, hoarsely. "Hard!"

At the same instant the chain cable of the vessel was slipped, bells
jangled in her depths, the mighty engines clanked into sudden motion,
the screws revolved, and she began slowly to drive astern. But it was
too late, the sea devil was too near to be balked of the prey. The men
at the cranks of the _David_, working with superhuman energy, fairly
hurled the torpedo boat upon the doomed ship. Lacy had time for a
single u