Morgan Robertson

“ Gun-fire on the upper ships suddenly ceased, and the Argyll's captain and aids came out of their refuge to see these two, with a furious turmoil of water at their stems, backing and turning in their lengths. The wig-wag had told the news.
“There it is again!” shouted Bronson, excitedly. “It's up for a peep around. Now it's under again.”
Professional excitement and enthusiasm is excusable, even when aroused over the performances of an enemy. Bronson, who had gone aloft to die, had a new interest in life. ”

“ My orders were to conceal myself until I reported to the admiral of the outer squadron, except that in this strait I was to deliver verbal information to a battleship, which, alone of the Russian fleet, was ignorant of the news that I carried.”
“And the news?”
“It is known to the world, and to you. The presence in Eastern seas of five English submarines.”
The captain smiled and bowed. “Yes, known to the world, for we have been at pains to advertise it. It is demoralizing to an enemy to have him feel that at any moment a submarine may creep up unseen and torpedo him. ”

“ Felton. “Finnegan, take that man's place at the wheel, and steer after the boat-boom.”
“Steer small,” said the captain to Finnegan, as he climbed out of the hatch and stood knee-deep on the submerged deck. “It's an air-engine steering-gear. Don't touch anything but the wheel.”
The old man, shaky with age and nerves, floundered into the conning-tower and took the wheel—the upper spokes of which were visible to those on the high bridge of the battleship—while the boat's commander waded forward on the round and unstable platform to where a ring-bolt showed through the water. ”

“ She was caught in a trap, but that unarmored, unprotected mother with her five small ducklings needed her care, and, lifting her anchor, she steamed out to meet her, the secondary battery silent the while, but the after-turret guns belching at the two ships at sea, the forward ones at the battleship, the two cruisers, and the scout And her aim was good, and her range-finding excellent, and the shells she sent so much heavier than those sent at her, that with a little more time she might have saved that distracted mother ”

“ Illustration:HE BEGAN DANCING ABOUT IN THE WATER.
“The mother-boat must have dropped one somewhere,” said the captain, “or else it's the one they had hoisted when she blew up. Just in time, too,” he added calmly, as a crash sounded and a quiver went through the ship, while a cloud of smoke and splinters went up from the stern. A shell from the lower ship had struck,
“Steering-gear gone, sir,” called a quarter-master from within the conning-tower.
“Thought so,” remarked the captain. “We're hit in our weak spot. We're helpless, but—praise God for that submarine. Look at them go.” ”

“ But the ship went on, a man now exposed on her forward bridge, waving a wig-wag back and forth, until abreast of the Argyll. And now, though her heavy shells still came toward the big, invulnerable Englishman, it was noticeable that her whole secondary battery of quick-fire and machine guns was directed astern, at something which only Bronson, high in air with a pair of service binoculars, could make out.
“A submarine!” he called. “They're running away from it. ”

“ Mr. Bronson translated his story.
“It was the boatswain,” he said, “who reached up and moved the starting-switch in the conning-tower. He easily surmised, by my talking in a language strange to him, that we were captured, and when he saw me relinquish the wheel to Finnegan, he acted.”
“But did anybody drown?” asked Mr. Clarkson eagerly. “Where's Finnegan? How did that man get out?”
“Some must have drowned,” went on Bronson gravely. “The boatswain got Finnegan out of the way and closed the hatch ”

“ She frightened away the scout-boat and the cruisers. They went away signalling.”
“Yes, one such boat is worth a whole fleet, until fighting begins. She has frightened them all away. Here she is again.”
The small conning-tower again arose, a hundred yards ahead. This time it remained above water, and they expected the hatch to open and her commander's head to appear, when their attention was brought closer to themselves. A large shell had struck the foremast just below the lower top, exploded, and sent the upper part of the mast whirling overboard ”

“ But, with every tank full and her engine stopped, she still possessed a reserve buoyancy which would bring her slowly to the surface. She could travel awash four hundred miles; submerged, fifty. In this radius of action she could expend her five Whitehead torpedoes, and return to port again and again for more. ”