there was every variety of fight, from the ordered attacks of squadrons under control, to single ship affairs, every turn of which depended on the second’s decision of the men concerned; endurance to the hopeless end; bluff and cunning; reckless advance and red-hot flight; clear vision and as much of blank bewilderment as the Senior Service permits its children to indulge in.  That is not much.  When a destroyer who has been dodging enemy torpedoes and gun-fire in the dark realises about midnight that she is “following a strange British flotilla, having lost sight of my own,” she “decides to remain with them,” and shares their fortunes and whatever language is going.

If lost hounds could speak when they cast up next day, after an unchecked night among the wild life of the dark, they would talk much as our destroyers do.

    The doorkeepers of Zion,
      They do not always stand
    In helmet and whole armour,
      With halberds in their hand;
    But, being sure of Zion,
      And all her mysteries,
    They rest awhile in Zion,
    Sit down and smile in Zion;
    Ay, even jest in Zion,
      In Zion, at their ease.

    The gatekeepers of Baal,
      They dare not sit or lean,
    But fume and fret and posture
      And foam and curse between;
    For being bound to Baal,
      Whose sacrifice is vain,
    Their rest is scant with Baal,
    They glare and pant for Baal,
    They mouth and rant for Baal,
      For Baal in their pain.

    But we will go to Zion,
      By choice and not through dread,
    With these our present comrades
      And those our present dead;
    And, being free of Zion
      In both her fellowships,
    Sit down and sup in Zion—­
    Stand up and drink in Zion
    Whatever cup in Zion
      Is offered to our lips!

III

THE MEANING OF “JOSS”

A YOUNG OFFICER’S LETTER

As one digs deeper into the records, one sees the various temperaments of men revealing themselves through all the formal wording.  One commander may be an expert in torpedo-work, whose first care is how and where his shots went, and whether, under all circumstances of pace, light, and angle, the best had been achieved.  Destroyers do not carry unlimited stocks of torpedoes.  It rests with commanders whether they shall spend with a free hand at first or save for night-work ahead—­risk a possible while he is yet afloat, or hang on coldly for a certainty.  So in the old whaling days did the harponeer bring up or back off his boat till some shift of the great fish’s bulk gave him sure opening at the deep-seated life.