Page:Barbour--For the freedom from the seas.djvu/189

 sighted smoke and picked up the torpedo boat destroyer Stacey. They were in the German submarine zone and the watch became sharper than ever. Just before dark the main body of the flotilla was sighted and the next morning the Q-4 was back with her companions, some of them showing effects of their struggles with the storm. Nelson learned that the Gyandotte was one of the gray shapes ahead and he wondered whether the captain would attempt to put him aboard her. He didn't quite see the possibility of it, nor did Martin, and the latter prophesied that Nelson would stay just where he was until they reached port, something that Nelson was glad enough to do. The junior lieutenant informed him that evening that they had reported his rescue to the Gyandotte, but that it wouldn't be advisable to attempt any transfer at present.

The flotilla was back in two-column formation by that time, with destroyers and cruisers forming a cordon about them, and in such order they steamed toward Cape Clear. The following day the lookouts on all the ships were kept perturbed and busy, for the sea was a graveyard thereabouts and the surface was fairly cluttered with wreckage. Scarce an hour passed that a floating cask or spar or hatch did not send the destroyer and 164