Page:The Iron Pirate 1905.djvu/337

323. The reaction was nigh intolerable; the men waited for some seconds silent as the voiceless; then their cheers rang away over the seas in a great volume of sound, which must have re-echoed down in the caverns of the Atlantic.

"You, Dick," ordered Black, "return the lubbers that, or I'll whip you;" and Dick, who had got his wits back, replied— "Skipper, if I dinna dive into their internals, gie me sax dozen." "Hands to quarters," continued the skipper; "let no man show himself till I call, then him as doesn't fight for all he's worth, let him prepare to swing."

With this there fell a great busyness, the men going, some to the turrets, some to the magazines below.

Black had not noticed me during the episode of the torpedo, but he turned round now, and, seeing that I stood near him, he beckoned me into the conning-tower with him. It was a chamber lined with steel with a small glass for the look-out, and electric knobs which allowed communication with the engine-rooms, the wheelthe turrets, and the magazines. From that pinnacle of metal you could navigate the ship, and there Black fought the battle of that night and of the days following. And as I stood at his side I learned from his running comments much of the course of the fight.