Every now and again it would catch something, and we’d get in a state of ’oly joy and ’aul at it, but, offener than not, it was only a piece of seaweed, or it had just caught a rock—you could tell that by the sudden way it gave. We went at it, ’auling the grapnel across where the cable might be, then putting to sea and backing again, for mayhaps ’alf an hour. Rogers, the torpedo instructor, was ’andling the grapnel line, for the Sub, he says to ’im, "You’ve had more experience ’unting for lost torpedoes, so you take it, Rogers," which made us laugh, on the quiet, as it ’it the little man rather ’ard, ’e being mighty sore about anything going wrong with ’is torpedoes. There was not a sound from shore, and not another light could we see. Pretty eerie it was, with every now and again the noise of guns a-firing out to sea, and we went backwards and forwards till we were well-nigh sick of it, and every moment thought one or all of them torpedo-boats would come dashing through, and probably cut us down. Just as we were about to chuck up the business, Rogers sings out softly that he’d got ’old of something, and sure enough, as another man clapped on the grapnel rope, it came in with a steady pull, and Rogers, leaning over, with his arm in up to the shoulder, as it comes to the surface, says in a muffled voice, "I’ve got it, sir; right it is, sir." We passed the grapnel aft. The Sub lashed a rope round the cable and ’auled it over the stern, Rogers coming gingerly stepping between us to cut it in ’alf, and we could just see ’im raise ’is axe, down it came, and out went both the lights. We could do nothing but chuckle inwardly; we dursn’t make a sound, and it ’urt somewhat. The Sub-lootenant ’ad got one end in his hand, and he hung on to it like grim death, and hauled away till he’d got a couple of fathoms on board, and Rogers cut this hoff, and we dropped the rest of it in the water. "Back to ’No. 3’," sings out the Sub, and we pulls away as cheerily as mud-larks, and then came the ’unt for her. We’d got a signal lantern in the boat, and was just a-going to light it, when the Sub-lootenant caught sight of her and ’ailed her softly. We were aboard in a jiffy and ’oisted the whaler in again, everyone a-patting us on the back. They’d got some ’ot cocoa made down in the stokehold, too, and served us out some all round, which we needed pretty bad. There was more firing just about this time, and when we’d got on deck again, after our ’ot cocoa, we were romping along in that direction. But we weren’t off to ’elp "No. 2", not by a long chalk, for Mr. Parker or the Sub-lootenant, or both of them, gets another idea (real artistic, too, I called it), and he stops, and we gets out the two collapsable boats and the whaler, and we soon sees what ’is little game is, for he lashes a lantern in each of the small boats and sends the Sub inshore again. We were still, you see, quite close to the rocks, but ’alf a mile farther along.