The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-03
191 17?
 By -* EDWfN BALMER Copyright, 1916. by the Chicago
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 "Gentlemen, the disposition or the enemy's forces as just now brought to me makes it imperative that whatever action we take should be ordered without a moments further delay. and in this emergency I must agree with the secretary of the navy and as so, 1t seems. with the majority of you. order the fleet to sea to battle with the enemy at the earliest possible mo- ncnt and under the most favorable conditions for the defense of our coun- try"
 A gun was going "Thunn. Thunn" It ceased and opened again. firing more quickly. "Thunn!, Thunn!'' And now. farther, away. echoed different 'etonatiohs, "Lamn,. ,Lamm!"
 That's not saluting.r
 "saluting?1 should say not. Nor practice either"
 "Then what is it?''
 "Anti-air craft. should say.''
 The special from Chicago. now run ming on the Chesapeake and Ohio tracks. pulled into the station at New port News, and as the officers led the. bluejackets from the cars the firing on fhe river became more distinct.
 Bob Wendell, not having charge of Getail. went from the station with the officers who were similarly unattached and hurried down to the water front. The estuary of the James river. where 1t widens to Hampton Roads, lay cleaning under the warm afternoon sun. A wind from the ocean was whipping up white spray in the roads, and the launches and little boats fin the James rolled and splashed on their eerrands to and from the grim. gray battleships lying away toward Nor folk ~
 l "Anti-air craft, all right"
 A gun was aimed almost directly up- ward from the forward deck of a de- ss-oyer in the middle of the ~iver. A haze af powder gas puffed from its n1uzzle, for the gun was firing as rapid- .ly as the gunners could handle the am munition. "Thunn! Thunn"' the de ' donation of the. discharge thudded across the water,f and from high over- head echoed the bursting of the shells. Big blobs of white smoke spotted the sky where the shells were breaking. There were more white blobs up there than one gun could fire. Another rife must have come into action. Wendell lrko pd tI,a of O gun from down the river, and yet for a moment more he failed to discern the target
 6 It was only streak when he saw if "a delicate blue line barely discover nble against the azure of the sky. On both sides of the streak there was something upon which the sunlight glinted now and then, but which was itself invisible. These were the wings of the aeroplane, he knew, compose; of the transparent cellulose substance used in Europe. The streak, painted sto match the sky, was the body of the plane, armored, undoubtedly. ant freighted with bombs. The height a which the machine was flying indicat cI at first that the pilots purpose wa: reconnaissance; he was well above th' smoke of the shells, but as Wendell watched, the plane suddenly swoopet downward, circled and, dropped again NOther guns-ten or R score of them some in ships and others on the shor --owoke and mottled the sky nbOu the plane with bursting shells. Tn machine dashed through them ant swooped still lower, and, turning an; coming with the wind, flew at tn navy yard with marvellous speed. ''Mr. Wendell" a voice inquired. "A1l Fulton and Mir. Ross"
 Wendell and his companions were fl uniform, having made the change O. the train; their orders, telegraphed t the train, were to report at once aboar the Arizona. A boy, in ensign's un form, was addressing them. i've com for you," he explained. I'm from Il, Arizona; the launch is right here, sir.
 The three men from the train fo lowed the boy down to the boat an preceded him on board. The ensign lis name was Wayne-steered tn I launch swiftly across the water tt ward Norfolk. All about the ant air craft guns v-cre going incessantl. Wendelrs pulses quickened with th Iiearness of the firing, but for fe' moments he silently studied tho si houettes of the ships lying furthe down the liver and in the roads.
 The big four funneled, two maste destroyer which had started the frin was the Cummings. The Cassin of tl same class was just beyond. A littl farther of the larger aud newer d. stroyers, Aylwin and Balch. both ba brought their anti-air craft guns int action. A couple of great cruisers : they had the two turrets. four funne and the cage foremast of the Montar class-spat a shell now and then, bl for the most part they were silen Lailocs sprawled over their sides wit paint pots and brushes. daubiig bl splotches of gray over the lead colore paint. The supers .ructure and ful nels of the cruisers, the turrets and tf barrels of the long guns were alread dappled, so that the outline of tf ships. even whcn close by. was vagu and broken.
 Beyond the cruisers and sentinele by . dozen small torpedo craft, Ia