Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-09-27

goas home.
The whir grew less, but ali listened
until the end of the nlile-long Journey,
On board the enemy ship everyone
could see the air bubbles that came up
from the speeding missile and its
white, foaming wake. There was ne
time to maneuver the giant ship. They
nrayed-they could do no more-that
The torpedo might not have been shot
true; that it might deviate from its
imminent path.
1t came on inexorably. The firing
became wilder The gunners, alb
sorbed as they were in their task
seemed permeated with the contagious
terror caused by that white, ripping
pencil line that was extending toward
their ship.
The missile struck the battle cruiser
amidships, blowing out a section of
her hull, single water-tight compart-
ment. The cruiser hardly staggered
from the blow.
The torpedo had struck glancing,
and missed the full force of its deliv-
cry. The wound was in itself too
small to sink or even badly cripple the
great ship; a triumph Of shipbuilding,
and calculated to withstand just such
an impact.
Unfortunately for her, the maximum
Of the shock was received beneath the
powder room, adjacent to the ammu-
milton chamber, whose doors were
open at that moment for the removal
of the Pinch shells by the ammuni-
ton hoist.
The shock was followed by an inf
mite suspense. Perhaps it lasted for
two seconds. The cruiser drove
through the waves like some sea mon
ster that had received a deadly thrust
unscathed.
Then, with a defamation that was
she went sky-high in tumbling ruin.
Donald, within the coming tower, saw
a blur frost the mirror Of the peri
scope.
Another second passed. Then the
F55 went Keeling under the terrific
round under the waves and thrilled as
if she herself faced disruption.
The bilge-pumps cleared her diving
tanks. She rose, nose upward, scent
ing the air; her stern followed, and
she lay awash in the water once more.
The matches were removed.
Not q vestige of the cruiser was to
be seen. She had sunk in less than
three minutes.
But hard by, not three-Quarters of
mile to port, pillar of smoke, lit
up by flame, curled out of the BeOtia's
matches. Deeming her the submarines
decoy, the cruisers gunners had rid
died her with shells from the two II
inch guns at the bow.
She seemed to stagger through the
smoke that wreathed her. She was
dying by fire and water, too, and the
twin elements, in their eternal conflict,
rocked nothing of her human freight,
And Ida was there-Ida, doomed to
perish. If she were not already dead,
unless help speedily camel
Donald took the helm. The F55
rushed through the waves in the di-
rection Of the Claude liner, which list
ed hard to starbOard. Two boats had
already been launched, and bobbed
ridiculously beside her; others re-
NAMED high up in the air, impotent,
because the list prevented their being
lowered, and dashed themselves to
pieces against the hull as they swung
from the shattered davitS.
AS the F55 drew near the ocean
seemed to open. Silently, softly, the
convexity of the hull slipped down and
was lost to view as the suns edge
goes into the horizon. A swirl and
eddy in the sea, and nothing remained
except the two boats and some tiny,
doll-like figures that bobbed in the
water.
A gasp Of horror went up from the
throats Of the seamen, clustered upon
the deck of the F55, as the swirl
sucked down the boat that was the
nearer to the maelstrom of the wreck.
1t sucked down with all it's living
freight, and spewed it forth into the
lir again. end On-empty.
ITO be continued)