Summary

Section 8 of Chapter 2 is titled, “Thursday. Afternoon Watch: 1200 – 1600.” As the new watch begins, Krause goes on ship-wide address and alerts the crew to the sighted periscope, and to the fact that the Keeling is in pursuit. As he settles in for the watch, Krause senses a lull in the ship’s energy, and then realizes it is part of a cycle. “It was the same speeding up of time. Leisure at first, then events moving more and more rapidly, space contracting and time hurrying” (185).

The next jolt of energy in the cycle comes sooner than anticipated, as sonar reports a target. Krause is momentarily surprised, since the report suggests the U-boat had not followed the path that Krause had anticipated. Krause likens the moment to an experience of fencing, a sport that he had participated in when he was younger. “In the old...