Suddenly the signal board flashed red. The men read:
“No. 3 torpedo! No. 4 torpedo!”
Lord Hastings had decided upon a bold stroke. He had determined to deliver a double blow to the enemy before he was forced to submerge, to escape the fire of the enemy.
He gauged the range for each torpedo, and this was flashed upon the signal board. Then came the next command:
“Attention!”
Eagerly, though quietly, the men awaited the next command. There was not a nervous hand aboard. All bore themselves with the easy nonchalance that has been the character of the British sailor through all the ages; but their fingers twitched with impatience.
And then the signal board again glowed in burning letters:
“Fire!”
“Click! Click!”
Not another sound, and even these only audible to the men who had launched the torpedoes, and two powerful engines of destruction, aimed true, sped on the errand of death and disaster.