FullReads

“And the Argyll is equal to it, captain. All I fear is torpedoes. Of course our ends and superstructure will catch it, and I suppose we’ll lose men–all the quick-fire men, perhaps.”

“Those in the tops surely,” said the captain. “Dalrymple, what do you think? I don’t feel right about Finnegan. He belongs in the turret, and I’ve sentenced him. Have I the right? I’ve half a mind to call him down.” He pushed a button marked “Forward turret,” and listened at a telephone.

“Mr. Clarkson!” he called. “I’ve put your man Finnegan in the upper top; but he seems all right now. Can you use him?”

The answer came:

“No, sir; I’ve filled his place.”

“Die, then. On my soul be it, Finnegan, poor devil,” muttered the captain, gloomily.

His foot struck the bottle under the binnacle, and, on an impulse due to his mood, he picked it up and uncorked it. Mr. Dalrymple observed the action and stepped toward him.

“Captain, pardon me,” he said, “if I protest unofficially. We are going into action–not to dinner.”

The captain’s eyes opened wide and shone brighter, while his lip curled. He extended the bottle to the lieutenant.

“The apologies are mine, Mr. Dalrymple,” he said. “I forgot your presence. Take a drink.”

The officer forced a smile to his face, and stepped back, shaking his head. Captain Blake swallowed a generous portion of the whisky.

“The fool!” mused the navigator, as he looked through the peep-hole. “The whole world is watching him to-day, and he turns to whisky. That’s it, dammit; that’s the bond of sympathy: Blake and Finnegan, Finnegan and Blake–dipsomaniacs. Lord, I never thought. I’ve seen him drunker than Finnegan, and if it wasn’t for his position and obligations, he’d see spiders, too.”

Mr. Dalrymple was not the only one on board who disapproved of “Dutch courage” for captains. The Japanese servant, whose station was at the forward-turret ammunition-hoist, reported the service of the whisky to his mates, and from here the news spread–as news will in a cellular hull–up to turrets and gun-rooms, through speaking-tubes and water-tight bulkheads, down to stoke-hold, engine-rooms, and steering-room; and long before Captain Blake had thought of taking a drink the whole ship’s company was commenting, mentally and openly, and more or less profanely, on the story that “the old man was getting drunk in the conning-tower.”

And another piece of news traveled as fast and as far–the whereabouts of Finnegan. Mr. Clarkson had incidentally informed his gun-captain, who told the gun-crew; and from them the news went down the hoist and spread. Men swore louder over this; for though they did not want Finnegan around and in the way, they did not want him to die. Strong natures love those which may be teased; and not a heart was there but contained a soft spot for the helpless, harmless, ever good-natured, drunk, and ridiculous Finnegan.

The bark of an eight-inch gun was heard. Captain Blake saw, through the slits of the conning-tower, a cloud of thinning smoke drifting away from the flag-ship. Stepping back, he rang up the forward turret.

“Mr. Clarkson,” he said to the telephone when it answered him, “remember: aim for the nearest water-line, load and fire, and expect no orders after the first shot.”

Calling up the officer in the after-turret, he repeated the injunction, substituting turrets as the object of assault. He called to the officers at the eight-inch guns that conning-towers and superstructure were to receive their attention; to those at the six-inch guns to aim solely at turret apertures; to ensigns and officers of marine in charge of the quick-fire batteries to aim at all holes and men showing, to watch for torpedo-boats, and, like the others, to expect no orders after the first shot. Then, ringing up the round of gun-stations, one after another, he sang out, in a voice to be heard by all: “Fire away!”

The initial gun had been fired from the flag-ship when the leading ships of the two fleets were nearly abreast. It was followed by broadsides from all, and the action began. The Argyll, rolling slightly from the recoil of her guns, smoked down the line like a thing alive, voicing her message, dealing out death and receiving it. In this first round of the battle the fire of the eight opposing vessels was directed at her alone. Shells punctured her vulnerable parts, and, exploding inside, killed men and dismounted guns. The groans of the stricken, the crash of steel against steel, the roar of the turret-guns, the rattling chorus of quick-fire rifles, and the drumming of heavy shells against the armor and turrets made an uproarious riot of sound over which no man above the water-line could lift his voice. But there were some there, besides the dead,–men who worked through and survived the action,–who, after the first impact of sound, did not hear it, nor anything else while they lived. They were the men who had neglected stuffing their ears with cotton.