Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1916-10-20

"On armor No real damage. was
there? We weren't missed by much a
few times"
Then they talked of what was ahead
of them. The Arizona and the Penn
sylvania and the destroyers had not
turned back to the roads: they were
keeping on south and east. The officers
spoke In low tones, and after the mess
attendants had served them.
"The special god who looks after
drunken men and fools has sent us
this hurricanef' Garry calculated.
Look at the fix we were in-one divi-
sion at New York, ours at Norfolk. the
Delaware and North Dakota at
Charleston. and most of the rest of our
decent ships beating 1t up from Haiti
and the gulf as fast as they can make
1t. Special Providence put q finger In
that, too: the ships we have to have
We're on the way when the Salem
woke Washington up. But at that, we
were up against 1t till this wind came
along. In any reasonable weather
their air craft would be scouting every
where to find where we are-with
their battle cruisers and perhaps a d.
vision of their Sargons they could have
cut off any division of ours they
wanted and stopped us from ever
getting a fleet together"
"The Oklahoma and Nevada, with
some more destroyers, are coming out,
I suppose you know. They left the
roads just at dark and will join us
about midnight"
Garry nodded: ITO try q little sur
prise party on the prince In the morn
Ing. i" Going up again now?"
mo: I've next watch. I'm to sleep
now"
They went to their rooms together.
Good luck!"
Good luckr'
Wendell went to his room and closed
the door. 1t was the first time since
he had been in battle that he had been
away from the observation of his fell
lows. alone. He stood for q moment,
dazed at the relax within himself, and
for an instant he opposed 1t, then he
sank down upon his bed and lay on
his back staring up at the painted
steel of his ceiling. He had fought
In battle!
1t could not have been the peril Of
It which had excited and exhausted
him so; 1t could not have been. during
the long hour, the imminence of OBJ
Iteration. Except for the trying.
waiting minutes of inaction after the
submarines attacked, be had scarcely
been conscious of reckoning his chan
ces for life or death; something far
mightier. more masterful and over
whelming. had absorbed him.
Besides. so far as danger went, he
had been In terrible peril before-there
was a time. on the side of the Matter
horn, when q snowstorm came and
he and a companion and a guide had
chung to an icy crack helpless for more
than an hour. when a slip by any one
Of the three would have dragged all
to death. Personal peril there had
been as great and had lasted as long
as this battle today: the danger of his
ride with Jim after Ingouf, when the
spy had turned to throw his bombs.
had been even greater; when Bob first
boarded the Arizona In the afternoon.
and the aeroplane dropped its ex-
plosives, be personally had been nearer
obliteration than he had since.
But the battle! How was 1t so DIFF
ferent from other dangers? Because
while another was trying to kill him
he also was trying to kill? That was
not 1t; for. when Ingouf tried to kill
him, he had killed Ingouf. and It was
not like this. When the ~aeroplane had
destroyed men beside him the guns
from the ships were firing up at the
plane. but neither was that like this.
Those things were all petty-personal;
that was 1t; everything before this
had been personal, and battle-battle
was not personal at all. Or 1t had not
been personal till now-this moment
when he was alone at last, shut In his
room away from the rest, with Nellte's
picture In the drawer of his desk.
He sat up and leaned over and open
ed the drawer and took out the picture
and gazed down at 1t. The sight of
her face-her lips which he had kissed
so many times, her dear, soft eyes gaz-
ing straight into his, steadied him for
the first seconds and then unnerved
him. Women and children, some one
had said, had been k~illed-torn to
pieces. probably, and dismembered-
when the Carthage and the Peras had
shelled Ocean City and Virginia Beach
to draw the American ships out"
Well, the American ships had come
out, and be had fought his turret and
given them shells for the shells they
had sent at Virginia Beach. A mast
was down on the Peras; other shells
must have hit; be must have killed