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It was in mid-channel that the Monitor ventured to the surface again. The periscopes showed another vessel, a second line battleship of the pre-dreadnought type, off the starboard beam. Undaunted by the hail of lead slugs that splashed the sea all around, the Monitor swerved and ran straight for the battleship's bows.
Here one might sport with Amaryllis in the shade, but for the fact that country wenches were not allowed in the dugouts and trenches, where I found our soldiers killing flies in the intervals between pot-shots at German periscopes.
Gideon would rather have seen him talking to the practical looking sailor about periscopes. Peacock would have to be watched. He had shown signs lately of colouring the Fact with prejudices. He was getting in with a push; he was dangerously in the movement. He was also leaning romancewards, and departing from the realm of pure truth.
The enemy was submerged, only the periscopes showing above the surface of the water. "The attitude of the British in the face of this attack was cool and the enemy was utterly misled when suddenly the cruiser Birmingham, steaming at full speed, fired the first shot. This shot was carefully aimed, not at the submerged body of a submarine, but at the thin line of the periscope.
"German raider!" the muffled cry ran through the ship. As the Dewey settled into the water. Lieutenant McClure and his executive officer peered intently though the periscopes, hoping to catch sight of the unknown craft and speculating on her nationality. The sky was flecked with clouds and there was no convenient moon to aid the submarine sentinel -an ideal night for a raid!
Across the open space of the neutral ground a few trench periscopes peered anxiously for any sign of movement, and saw none; the batteries' 'forward observing officers, tucked away in carefully chosen and hidden look-outs, fidgeted with wrist-watches and field-glasses, and passed back by telephone continual messages about the strength of the growing light and the lifting haze.
"Are we going to sink?" asked Jack. "We've already sunk," replied Frank. "Whether we'll get to the surface again or not I don't know." The lads heard the hiss of air through the vent in the manifold. Brown was letting water into the ballast tank to keep the submarine down. He turned as Captain Nicholson walked over to him. "They got our periscopes, I think," he said coolly.
Still, it's the best crew I ever had: young fellows off warships and transports, looking for comfortable berths and a little adventure that won't entail hunting periscopes." "Plenty of coal?" "Trust me for that. Four hundred tons in Manila, and I shan't need more than a bucketful." "Who drew the plans for this yacht?" asked Cunningham, with a roving glance. "I did." "Humph!
With a sudden phlop the rifle grenade goes drunkenly up into the mist; with a grunt of joy the Lewis gun and its warrior discharge a magazine at the dim-seen figures. And later, with intense eagerness, the ground in front will be searched with periscopes for the discovering and counting of the bag. The matter is impersonal; the dead are Huns, not individuals. . . .
Daily we kept careful and continuous watch, searching the long, curving line of German trenches and the ground behind them with our periscopes and field-glasses, and nearly always with the same barren result. We saw only the thin wreaths of smoke rising, morning and evening, from trench fires; the shattered trees, the forlorn and silent ruins, the long grass waving in the wind.
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