Adventure, December 1914 — page 48: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

46 ‘“‘Lights—what lights?” I asked. Kennedy was peering through a little telescope which was attached to the case beside the triple mirror. “Burke is signaling back to us!”’ he cried. ‘“‘Good—he gets me perfectly—is going over to Seaville House—we can meet him there unless there is something for us to do else- where.” He was hastily packing up the apparatus which had served us so well in a tight pinch. ‘““Now, Sinclair,’ he added briskly, “‘this is the time when you can show us what your boat can do. If it isn’t too late, we may be able to catch these people before they can slip out of our hands.” “I’m afraid I can’t get the speed out of her at night that I got this afternoon,” replied Sinclair cautiously. ‘It’s risky enough trying to get up to a mile-a-minute speed in the daytime, but at night it’s suicidal. I don’t dare to let her out.” WE CROWDED into the Stream- (aS line as quickly as we could, Sinclair es taking his place at the wheel, and cast off. “Start slowly then,” urged Craig. “It won’t hurt. We shall have to take in just how things are at first, anyhow. You can cut loose in a moment.” Neither Sinclair nor I said anything, but I am sure both of us wondered how it was going to be safer to speed the boat up a few minutes later than now. Kennedy was eagerly looking up the harbor in the di- rection of the Yacht Club with an expectant air as if something might happen at any moment. Cautiously at first Sinclair drove us along, gradually increasing the speed, but carefully devoting his entire attention to the running of the boat. Suddenly there came a boom, as if from a gun, far away in the direction in which Kennedy was peering. Sinclair quickly shut off his motor and gazed about in sur- prise. ‘Then came another from the same direction. ‘‘What’s that?” we both asked, startled. “There are the lights!’’ Kennedy ex- claimed. Another instant and from every quarter, up the bay toward which we were headed, showed what seemed to be huge balls of fire, literally rising from the sea, with a brilliantly luminous flame. Adventure ‘““Wh-what is it?” gasped Sinclair again. Kennedy had risen in the boat and was looking about eagerly. ‘‘A German invention,” he replied, “for use at night against attacks from torpedo boats and aeroplanes.” ‘And they are using them against us?” I asked, forgetting in the excitement Ken- nedy’s remark a short time before about the lights. “No, no,” he answered testily. ‘‘Don’t you remember the mortar I set up at the club. From it Burke has shot half a dozen of these bombs.” Sinclair had recovered from his surprise and started his engine again. ‘““What are they made of?” he asked. ‘“‘Phosphid of calcium,” returned Ken- nedy briefly. ‘‘The mortar hurls them out far in every direction into the darkness. They are so constructed that they float. after a short plunge into the water. The action of the salt water automatically ig- nites them merely by contact, and the chem- ical action of the phosphid and the water keeps them phosphorescing for several minutes.” Sinclair was as ready to praise as he had been to criticize a few minutes before. ‘““My hat off to you, Kennedy,” he ejacu- lated. ‘‘You seem to have prepared for almost any emergency. It’s splendid— splendid!”’ I could quite agree with him. The sight which the calcium bombs unfolded about us was indeed a beautiful pyrotechnic dis- play. They lighted up the shores and the high-lying hills about the bay in an almost spectral manner. Cottages hidden among the trees, or in coves here and there along the sweep of shore-line, seemed to stand out as if in an unearthly flare. What the people about the shore must have thought I could only guess. Here and there we could see them crowding out on the porches and pointing in consterna- tion at what appeared to be impossible bonfires in the very water itself. Every craft in the harbor was shown as distinctly as if the glare of the sun shone on it, and the excitement on the boats was even greater than on the shore, for the people on them were closer and more amazed at what they saw. Together we scanned the bay carefully for any sign of a boat moving suspiciously. “There it is,’ cried Kennedy, bending GomiiGcorook (C@