The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-06


 The Arizona Could Not Halt to Save
 tho Men.
 returned after the fight with 1ngouf, when she held the telegram of recall in her hand. For second Bob seemed to feel her weight in his arms as he carried her. close against him, up the stairs. Then, strangely, he saw 1Garry's little boy--the straight, smil- ing little fellow with the Arizona rib bon on his hat; in the next instant Bob was himself again and was conscious that he was facing Louden, the firing pointer who still held to the firing key, though for the moment Louden's eyes, too, were staring at nothing-very far away
 In the suspense the motion of the ship had become more menacing-the heave of the great waves against the steel sides, the sweep of the spray over the deck, and the noise O. the wind. In such sea few would be saved if the ship went down.
 Some one behind a b,-lkhead swore violently; Bob did not try to discover who. It was the snapping of nerves during inaction; and the outburst was against the smoke-the crazy soot which the destroyers were sending up and which shut everything away and stopped the guns from firing
 A deep, rumbling detonation-very different from the banging resound of the guns of the destroyers-came down the wind; the noise of the "fours' diminished 4
 Wendell tried again to make out something through his periscope but the smoke was still all about the Arizona
 s'What do you make of that, HoltT' he asked of the turret captain. 'Tor- pedo?'
 "Yes, sir; one of the destroyers gone, should say, sir"
 One of the destroyers gone! That, now, was plain. The smoke about the Arizona was thinning and, as Bob's field of vision extended couple of hundred yards forward and to the left, he saw destroyer sinking by the stern. It was one of the newer and larger of the destroyers-a long, four funneled boat with two masts and with sharp prov pointing to the sky. It was the Aylwin, or the Balch, which had been on guard ahead the few min utes before, its guns going, its fun l nels belching smoke for the hiding of 1 the Arizona; smoke still steamed from 1 the forward tunnels as the destroyer sank; but it's guns were Ailent, leering l to the sky. Men were falling from its slanting deck into the sea, others clung to stays or stanchions. They made no vignal to the battleship as 300 yards away, 1t rushed by in the haze of smoke which the other datroyers sus- tained. The Arizona, bent on the de- struction of life, could not halt to save men from the vessel which had been protecting the tbattleship; the men on the destroyer knew it; one of them waved and Bob knew that he was cheering. as the Arizona passed; then he leaped into the sea.
 ! The chatter of machine gun; the rattle of another, replying, sounded from the air overhead. The turret l guns of the Arizona were still masked and silent; the torpedo defense batter ies on the battleship still lacked a target; the noise of the machine gun became distinct. Two aeroplanes were fighting-an American machine pur- sued by monoplane of the enemy and driven back over the American ships. Bob saw the duel but fash | ing second as the aircraft swept over head. The smoke was disappearing the destroyer, which had been belching | the pail, appeared again-or rather three of them appeared where there had been four.
 Range. one, nine, o double or the telephone transmitters in the turret | were talking again. The visual upon the bulkhead displayed the range as the sightsetters sprang to their sights "Commence firingr'
 The Arizona had passed through the i zone where the enemy's submarines had waited; tie American observers in the aeroplanes, and on the destroyers far ahead had reported no more sub mersibles in position of danger; those which had been passed could not, sub l merged, overtake the battleships. The l Pennsylvania, with its patrol of de stroyers ahead and on both sides, also was safe. Far, far ahead the great l cruisers of the enemy appeared 1I l flight. A mast was gone from one o1 the Peras, the third ship in the line at wh.ch the Arizona had been firing The gun crew cheered as Bob reported it to them; choered again for the Pennsylvania as he told the men that the Carthage lacked funnel. The enemy had been hit and were in flight
 Boys, that was the Balch they tor pedoed! Boys. for the Balch-and fol the Salem the other dayv
 The right gun leaped back in it's re coil as the firing pointer pressed his key. The roar of gun from tho Pennsylvania boomed in rivalry ovel 1 the water. Both ships were firing but one gun again to find the range before firing by salvos.
 up 5OOr" The order came quick,