John Fleming Wilson

“ I may be wrong, and luck may hold against me.”
Jones' vaguely elderly face was lighted by a faint smile. “It's so much better to keep on at full speed and leave the final decision to the event,” he added and he dropped into an easier attitude against the rail. “Captain Ames wore himself and all the others to a bone by slowing up and having to look all around the horizon. We've got nothing to fear except what's directly ahead of us. No submarine can catch us; I doubt very much whether a torpedo could be aimed to strike us except from a very short distance, and then—we have our chance!” ”

“ The war has brought them around, a debonair and care-free crew, who accept with a patronizing air the chances of being submarined or mined. They were bred on a coast where perils are so thick that nothing man can do strikes them as extraordinary, and I fear that many of them look down on their worried superiors, men who have used the Atlantic for a generation and miss the old lights and patrols and safeguards.
“Our old man is so reminiscent!” quoth my friend Tommy Edwards one night as he sat at my table and humorously recited the events of his first voyage to the English coast. ”

“ Whichever way we turned we should infallibly run into the enemy. “If there was only a fog or a mist,” sighed Tommy. “And it's a perfect August day. They can see us for miles around.”
“They can't catch us,” I said bravely.
“Oh, no! Certainly not!” he replied sarcastically. “No chance of that!”
The only undisturbed person—by this time the passengers had heard a little of the news—was Captain Jones. He gathered what information he could from the wireless-room, made his calculations and spoke briefly with the commander of the gun-crew. ”

“ Unheralded, the Cerulean put to sea and vanished from my ken. But during the next two weeks I often pondered Tommy Edwards' final, jovial explanation of his faith in the luckless star of Slack-Lime Jones. Back of his youthful confidence there must be, I argued, a profound basis, something at once convincing and simple. Modern seamen of the type don't pin their faith to fantasies or trust to other than scientific methods. ”

“ Some of them had witnessed the whole affair, and it was public property that the Cerulean, when she was quite safe, had been again imperiled by her captain in an effort to ram and destroy the submarine.
“Right is right,” announced the spokesman for the cabin and luck may people. “This steamship is neither a cruiser nor a cargo-boat. She carries both passengers and mails. Your gun is only for defense, and when you try to use this vessel as a mere instrument of destruction, you're making it needful for us to take measures.” ”

“ Jones smiled faintly. “I don't doubt but that certain patrol vessels have orders to meet us,” he answered. “On the other hand, it strikes me that our German friends very likely have their orders—probably based on mine. If I'm to avoid being sunk, it is my place to escape being caught by a submarine. Now, the commander of the submarine gets his orders from a certain man. That man may very well have a hint of what my instructions are—may even know what orders the British Admiralty has given for guarding us. ”

“ Naturally the officers have a good notion of our daily run and can figure out what course we've made within a narrow margin. But as to exactly where the Cerulean is, I'm the only man who knows.”
“But if—if anything happened to you?”
“It wouldn't take the man who took my place half an hour to know everything he needed to know,” Jones replied. “But I can trust Mr. Edwards not to inquire too closely till there is necessity.” He stared at me as though his eyes were dim. “I can take risks another man would hesitate to take, you see. ”

“ And show the men who—”
“Show myself,” he interrupted. “What do I care about men over there on the Coast, those passengers who swore I didn't know my business, the gossipers in Seattle, the tattlers alongshore? No. I merely wish to assure myself that I am equal to an emergency.”
“And there's nobody you—er—hope to persuade that you're a misjudged man?” I demanded.
“Not a soul,” he returned.
“But Tommy Edwards seems to have implicit confidence in you now.”
“Don't tell him a word,” Jones insisted. “A young chap with all before him. A proper sailor-man, too. He wouldn't understand.” ”

“ Edwards' blue eyes grew chilly. “You think so? I wish 'em luck. To be sure, the crew is a collection of weak sisters. I doubt whether ten of 'em ever lowered a boat or saw one lowered, except at drill. However, we sha'n't lower any boats.”
I was curious indeed. “You mean to tell me that if a torpedo gets you—”
“No torpedo'll get us,” he replied with confidence.
“You'll get over this cocksureness,” I told him. “Better men than you—”
“Be kind to a poor second off'cer,” he pleaded. “But a secret in your ear: nobody knows it—but, Slack-Lime Jones is with us.” ”

“ A single boat on the port side got away before the tilt of the sinking vessel prevented all effort there. The starboard boats were plenty to hold our complement, and I instinctively stayed with Tommy Edwards on the bridge while the other officers and the crew did their best to keep order and hasten matters. So interested was I in the scene that I was startled to hear Slack-Lime Jones' voice in my ears:
“Nobody will be lost, I think,” he said quietly, “except those killed by the explosion. ”

“ Jones remarked to me quietly, “there is a flotilla of those sharks around. One may break the surface any time. On the other hand, we're within the patrol-lines, and a destroyer's just as likely to turn up and escort us in.”
“If it's not impertinent,” said I, “I'd like to know whether we're on the course your instructions ordered.”
“No,” he answered, “we're on the course the Council Bluffs was to have taken. I figured it out long ago. She's gone, and if the German spies did their work well, the submarines will never dream of a second vessel's traversing the exact course she was told to take. ”

“ The old packet took fire off Tillamook Head on a voyage south and darned near burnt up before Jones fetched us inside the Golden Gate. Kept the passengers locked up in their rooms for four days and four nights. Some skipper! But of course the passengers claimed his scalp when they got ashore, and they got it, though anyone acquainted with the facts knew that Jones saved their bally lives for 'em. Well, Slack-Lime has turned up again. He's third officer on the Cerulean.”
“Name of Jones?”
Tommy scorned me. “Naturally.” ”

“ I responded politely. “But I fancy few people from the Coast haven't heard of Captain Jones—Slack-Lime Jones.”
“It was reported that he was lost with the Star of Bengal,” he remarked.
“But you are alive!”
“Worse luck!” he said bitterly. “Can't a man quit without people digging him up and insisting he's So-and-so?”
“Tommy hasn't said a word to anybody but me, I'm sure.”
“No matter,” he replied. “I'm only the unknown third officer of the Cerulean. ”

“ And that won't last long.”
“Submarine?”
“To be sure,” he replied testily. “One man against a thousand! One ship against a hundred. What do you expect?”
“Edwards seemed very confident that your vessel would escape—in fact, said he was glad you were on her—told me I needn't worry.”
“I'm not the commander of the Cerulean,” he snapped. ”

“ My guest nodded vigorously. “Like an old farmer showing you over the place,” he answered. “One would suppose that in five hundred voyages he'd ha' picked up some information besides lights, lanes, ice and the high cost of living. ”