A bearded petty officer came aft at a double, and awaited orders. "The gadget!" exclaimed Morpeth laconically. The man ran for'ard and was lost to sight beyond the break of the conning-tower. Ten seconds later, impelled by a swift and invisible force, the conning-tower and the raised superstructure glided forward along the rails, leaving exposed in all their stark aggressiveness three large objects resembling exaggerated drain-pipes. "Torpedo-tubes, by Jove!" exclaimed Wakefield. "Guess you've never seen the type before," remarked the lieutenant-commander of Q 171. "They are shorter than the standard pattern, and, as you might observe, are not exactly parallel. Discharge all three torpedoes simultaneously, and they run on slightly divergent courses." "Doesn't give Fritz much of a chance," observed Meredith. "Not a dog's chance, old thing," rejoined Morpeth. "They're only 14-inch torpedoes, but they're just some. Blow a hole in a battleship's hull large enough to take a stage-coach, so you can imagine what happens when Fritz stops one--perhaps two, and very occasionally three. In a way a fellow can't help feeling sorry for Fritz, but he's asked for it all along the line. If he'd played a straight game with his U-boats we would have given him credit for what he'd done, and taken our chances. That chap who torpedoed our _Cressy_, _Hogue_, and _Aboukir_ early in the war did a smart thing, and the Navy admitted it; but now all the decent U-boat skippers have packed up, or else have degenerated into low-down curs." "Precisely," agreed Wakefield. "Hospital ships, and all that sort of business." "Unarmed merchantmen--that's why we've had to take on the Q-boat stunt. Hardly seems proper jonnick to lure a Fritz within range, and then blow him to bits, but, as I said before, he's asked for it." "Bagged many?"