On the poop turtle-back was the supplementary conning-tower, and another eleven-pounder gun.
"All out" the Frome could do forty-three knots. With her, speed was the primary consideration. To minimise windage every object that it was possible to construct in that fashion was wedge-shaped—even the shafting of the ventilators, while with her after turtle-back deck the destroyer could go astern at twenty-one knots without fear of being swept by the waves. She carried a complement of ninety men, of whom only fifteen were "engine-room ratings."
Gradually the fog lifted, till the outlines of Southsea Beach could be followed almost as far as the mouth of Portsmouth Harbour; and now, with her speed increased to a modest ten knots, the destroyer slipped up the fairway against the surging ebb tide.
Just as the Frome was within a quarter of a mile from the Round Tower, where the entrance of Portsmouth Harbour is barely 250 yds. wide, a burst of sunshine dispersed the last vestige of the fog within the sheltered waters, though at Spithead the haze was as thick as ever.
[Illustration: RIGHT AHEAD CAME A HUGE BATTLE CRUISER.]
"That's awkward, sir," remarked Fielding. Lieutenant Drake did not reply, but motioning the quartermaster to put the helm over to port, and telegraphing to the engine-room for fifteen knots, nodded significantly to his subordinate.
It was indeed awkward. Flying from the yard-arm of the naval station of Fort Blockhouse was the signal burgee letter S—a triangular blue and yellow flag—denoting that submarines were either entering or leaving Haslar Lake. From the Semaphore Tower, and from the foremast heads of all the ships in harbour, the Pilot Jack was flying, showing that one of H.M. ships was under way, and a glance astern showed that the second-class cruiser Vindictive was entering.
Right ahead came a huge battle-cruiser, with a Government tug lashed on either side, and a gaudily painted tug panting ahead with an enormous hawser, and a sister tender puffing decorously astern of the leviathan.