The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-10-07
steel of his ceiling. He had fought in battle!

him so; it could not have been, during the long hour, the imminence of ob-| liberation. Except for the trying. waiting minutes of inaction after the submarines attacked. he 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 snowstorm came and he and companion and q guide had clung 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 it's ex plosives, he personally had been nearer obliteration than he had since.
 But the battle! How was it so diff ferent from other dangers? Because, while another was trying to kill him he also was trying to kill? That was not it; 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 it; everything before. this had been personal and battle-battle was net personal at all! Or it had not been personal till now-this moment when he was alone at last, shut in his room away from the rest,s with NeiIe'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 it. 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 t1cn unnerved him. Women and children, some one had said, had been killed-torn to pieces, probably. and dismembered- when the Carthage and the Peras had Oshelled Ocean City and Virginia Beach to "draw the American ships out" We'll, the American ships had come out, 4nd he had fought his turret and given them spells for the shells they had sent at Virginia Beach. A mast was down on the Peras; other shells must have hit; he must have killed some of the murderers aboard. But while he was squaring that score the regents submarines were striking, too. The Balch had gone down with all hands while the Arizona had had to steam by at full speed.
 Little "Stubby" Derr, Bob had learn ed, had commanded the Balch. He was not fin Bob's class, but Bob had got to Know him pretty well when they both were on Chinese station together. stubbN was "a game little chap"; Bob remembered the Army-Navy football game in Stubs last year, when well, Bob knew just how Stubby spoke to his men and smiled at them when everything was done and there was nothing left to do but cheer the ship you saved, as it went by. and then go down with your own.
 And Stub, too. had been married; in his little steel walled cabin, now deep down under the water, he had his picture of his widow. S Did she know 1t? Destroyer Balch lost with all hands," That was sentence of the | message which had gone to the shore. When and how would it reach-her! Was there now baby?- Bob wondered. What had little Stubby Derr seen when, at the last moment, he was alone. and need no longer smile at his men?
 Bob got up and opened the door; it was thoking close in there with the port closed and covered. He started as he saw some one standing without; 1t was Garry Starnes at the door of his room Garry, too, had found it close and stifling; his collar was loose, and he had taken off his coat. but, like Bob, he had not further undressed.
 "Its hot" Bob said to him simply.
 Awful"
 The friends faced each other an in. stant fairly. The same thought was in the hearts of both, and they both knew it. Neither would say 1t to the other, nor would either deny it as their eyes met. What they had seen hap pen to Stubby Dert was soon to come to them; when the great battle was
 joined, only the luckiest of chances could save either of them. The end might come before the great battle, o1 course: 1t might come tonight. at any
 moment.
 \ Garry stepped back into his room i Fob returned to his and put out the
 light. He lay on his bed, trying now to sleep. ~t quite unable to. The.l
 were thousand things which he had
 meant to say to Nellie. and none oi which he had said. He sat up once and started to find the light to write
 to her. then he lay down again. <Thost
 were not the sort of things one could write: she would not understand then seeing them >sprawled on a sheet ot
 paper; he wanted her to know that fl
 he did. not come back she should
 marry again. that he would prefe
 that; he wanted her to know
 His mind would not stay on that
 sss up 200. Up" : |"
 was on and, you see. sir, my broth
 CT was boatswain of the Balch."
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