I'd just glanced at my radium watch and blessed the girl who gave it to me. It was nine. I glanced up. Not fifty yards away was a ribbon of white foam flung out on the water like a scarf, and, sticking straight out, by God, was the periscope of a German submarine. No one waited for the command, "Fire when ready. . . ." The ship was action electrified. I never saw a crew work like that. They fired point-blank and sent that periscope straight up to where all good periscopes go. Ripped her clean off. We weren't sure we'd sunk her, but we figured we had. How did we feel? How do you think? That was celebrating the Fourth right and proper! Mac, sweating like a horse, panting from excitement, managed to breeze by and chuckle. "Didn't I tell you we'd shoot one off to show 'em who's who?" It was a great night. We were heroes. We had knocked the stuffings out of a periscope; it stood to reason we'd sunk her. We figured out how it happened. The submarine, when she was 'way out on the horizon line, must have seen us coming. She had evidently made a long detour, plotting our course and planning to arrive where she could take good aim and fire. What happened was that we changed our course, so that when she popped up she was plumb across our bow. Surprised! Wow! I bet her commander, if he's alive, hasn't closed his mouth yet! It was something like this: [Illustration] Well, we pretty well patted ourselves on the back, but German submarines must travel in pairs, like rattlesnakes, or else she came back to life, for an hour later she struck us amidships. You know it when you're struck. Rather! The crash--the roar--the tremendous vibration--for a full minute, as the big hulk trembles and shudders--the hiss of water rushing into the boilers, the steam gushing, the sudden listing, and, worst of all, the throb of the engines silenced. . . . You never forget that silence, felt rather than heard. It means you're a goner for fair. Above all the orders, rapped out like the clip of a hammer on steel--that noisy silence sounds loudest in your ears. "Stand by your guns. . . ." Sure we did. While there was still a chance we wanted to get a whack at that sub., but all the time I was worrying about Mac. He was taking a watch off. Could I reach him? ". . . Get back, you damned fools. . . ." ". . . Man the life-boats!" ". . . Gee, that's a close one! Look spry or you'll wash overboard. . . ." We didn't leave our post until the last life-boat swung clear and landed with her crew. A couple of boats had been smashed against the side of the ship and we heard the yells of their crew--nasty sound, that.