The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-05-08

dangerous place to land upon-fuII of Greek half-breeds and German touts, but you had better go ashore there, and we will tell our people where you are. We are sending young K with you-he's good chap, and you will find him useful should there be a scrap.''
 said that was sure of 1t, and presently we took to the boat-sorne twenty-six of us in all, soldiers. sail ors, capital padre, and a couple of boys. There seemed little danger of a second shipwreck, and, for a goou quarter of an hour, our spirits were high. The land stood at no great dis | tance, and help from our own des- troyers was expected. Judge then of the sudden turnabout when shell came Whizzing across the sea, and another and another.
 It took us some minutes to realize that the submarine had come to the top of the water and was firing upon us. Never did I see such anger as ! the good fellows about me dispIayeo They shook their fists at the Aus | trians, and even their loud curses were not reouked by the padre l Alas! You cannot dodge shells by ] | only too acurate. I learned later ! that the enemy had decided on no l account must I escape. At the third shot they struck the launch astern, smashing her to atoms and putting us all into the water. Then, as ! quickly, they raced away to do the s2me to our shipmates, who were launching the other boats I found | myself clinging to a wooden grating winch made an excellent raft, and ] presently came the padre, and with him the boy lieutenant to keep me ! company.
 1 The three of us made a consider able load for so frafl a raft. and I l have often won Tered what would i have been my fate if that brave par son had not been the first to go, wounded, as the poor fellow was ov 1 the shell which struck the launch. 1 Not a word he said, but just loosed l his hold and slipped beneath the waves, while we were powerless to help him.
 This was a great shock to me, and ] brought me to remember how near was to death myself-a fact I had not hitherto realized, despite all that had happened. The padres fate might be my own before many hours 44eLN tS4SS5lL I UT luIldL6IJ l19 water was not very cold. and the sea did not run high, yet the mere fact of being immersed up to the waist. and trusting for ones life to the buoy ancy of a grating was not encour- aging. Here my young friend came to my rescue, and treating the whole affair as a misfortune that could easily have been worse, he main tained Q spirit which could not fail to inspire courage. On the other side was the fact that darkness fell suddenly as it does in the Near East and our hope of the destroyers no-
 ticlng us had to be abandoned.
 A Desperate Swim.
 Even if they come up they wont see us in this light" said the boy;
 and then he asked me, cheeriIy enough, if I could swim.
 T used to be rather good at it.
 said, and in my turn inquired if he . thought it possible to swim to the
 shore. He was not quite sure about that.
 'I guess it's a good couple o1
 niles" he reflected, though the current Is setting that way Vel , have to see how far the tide carries us-there isn't much of that here. . abouts-and then make up ou1
 
 drown without swimming. could never hold on here until morning
 nor could you. I am supposing. I
 will have to be neck or nothing sir : in the end"
 . It was certainly true. yet the pros , pect might have appalled, a younger man than I. Overhead was a blaci
 and cloudy heaven. Not a light wa.
 to be seen at sea or shore. If oul
 destroyers had come up, they cer
 tainly had not found us. I arrived in the end at my young friends con clusion, and told him that l wa I ready to risk it.
 , You must give me hand if vol a can" said I, and let us hang on a , long as we can"
 f He said that he meant to do so
 and I could see that he watched tn,
 current very carefully. It still car ried us inshore. and by and by ther, F came message of hope most un a expected. A light shone out upo1
 the summit of a distant cliff and a . the sea carried us round the hIuf - other lights appeared, so that pres 2 ently it became apparent that a vii = lage stood there. or at least a Iittl
 group of inhabited houses
 We had seemed so far from hu
 man assistance that rthis was a mos
 heartening spectacle. If there wer, a village on the height, then ther, ! would be some cove beneath or a ( least beach upon which a boa < could be landed. The idea occurred 4 to both of us together, and no soon lar d1d we observe inc u&h4s than thi