Lastly, which is on all fours with the gamble of the chase, a man was
coming home rather bored after an uneventful trip. It was necessary
for him to sit on the bottom for awhile, and there he played patience.
Of a sudden it struck him, as a vow and an omen, that if he worked out
the next game correctly he would go up and strafe something. The cards
fell all in order. He went up at once and found himself alongside a
German, whom, as he had promised and prophesied to himself, he
destroyed. She was a mine-layer, and needed only a jar to dissipate
like a cracked electric-light bulb. He was somewhat impressed by the
contrast between the single-handed game fifty feet below, the ascent,
the attack, the amazing result, and when he descended again, his cards
just as he had left them.

The ships destroy us above
And ensnare us beneath.
We arise, we lie down, and we move
In the belly of Death.

The ships have a thousand eyes
To mark where we come ...
And the mirth of a seaport dies
When our blow gets home.




SUBMARINES

II