Mountain Home Republican. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1915-1946, 1924-05-23

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be hard put to It to escape. It
was not likely that the oncoming ship
had sighted her smoke through the in
creasing haze.
Donald drove hard for the main
channel. He knew that he could catch
the German now, and he was ready TO
take chances of discovery. Meanwhile,
inch by inch, the stranger came up out
Of the sea.
AT first Donald believed she was a
British battle cruiser. This hope was
soon dispelled, however, when her fun
nels showed three black stacks, ringed
with white, the color Of the Claude
line, and the heavy hull, built for
freight not speed.
His heart began TO thump heavily.
For the Beotia was one of the Claude
lines ships, and the approaching yes
sci looked very much like the overdue
Beotla.
And Ida was aboard her, and al
ready well within range OF the enc
my's guns The two ships had sighted
each other. Donald saw the Beotla
diminish to a thread line as she turned
and ran, prov on, toward the Orkneys.
A squirt of fame broke from the Ger
mans bow. A coil of cloud followed
1t. A few seconds later the boom of
the discharge echoed across the water,
and pillar of spray shot up near the
Beotla's bow The battleship turned
toward her prey.
And Donald's chance had come.
The Beotia had no intention of sur
rendering. The German, following
her, perceived the lurking danger, and
at once his guns were trained on the
submarine.
The F55 dipped at the bow. A shell
booted over her, and a second, falling
shorter, deluged the submersible with
water. But the F55 was stern down
and sinking. Her perlscope shot
through the waves, the only target,
and In the coming tower Donald sat
with his eyes fast on the mirror.
Ten feet below the surface the F55
plunged on toward the monarch of the
sea.
The sound of the guns was vastly
louder under the waves. A single shot,
sent home, would smash through the
thin plates as II they were of paper.
But Donald knew that II was the SUI
preme moment when danger must be
ignored. He seemed to sense the ship,
the crew, as single entity, devoted
to single purpose. He aimed his
bow directly into his enemy's port
flank. Sc was less than mile away.
At that distance 1t seemed a miracle
that her shells failed TO strike home.
Down In the torpedo room three
men bore a torpedo from the rack and
placed 1t In the sings. They swung
It forward into the breech of the tube.
One man at the pump rapidly filed the
breech chamber with the compressed
air that was to send the missile upon
its course.
Donald, in the coming tower, still
held the cruiser within the mirror. He
saw the smoke coil from her guns, he
heard their dull reverberation, and
knew that at any moment the blinded
F55 might be sent staggering to her
death through the wake Of her wash.
But he was animated by the single
minded purpose which inspired all and
made the steel and human mechanism
bolt forged for death.
Clouts, at the wheel, did not allow
the little craft to deyiate a hairs
breadth from her course.
"Stand byw
The hiss Of the oxygen apparatus
dominated all other sounds. At her
45-knot speed the missile left the
launching tube with heavy thud, and
the ship qulvered as she shook herself
free.
And Donald knew that his shot had
gone home.
The whir grew less, but all listened
until the end Of the mile-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 no
time to maneuyer the giant ship. 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, abb
sorbed as they were in their task,I
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
blowing out a section Of
her hull, a single water-tight compart-
nent. The cruiser hardly staggered
from the blow.
The torpedo had struck glancing,l
and missed the full force Of It's deliv-
cry The wound was in itself too
small to sink or even badly cripple the
great ship; a triumph Of shipbuilding,
md calculated to withstand just such
IN impact.
Unfortunately for her the maximum
If the shock was received beneath the
H.