To-night when he found her at the house her first gush of anxiety for him was followed by a remark of singular heartlessness:
“But, oh, did you hear of the destruction of the Clara?”
“Yes, I heard of the destruction of the Clara,” he echoed, with a sneer. “If I had my way the whole rotten fleet would follow her to the bottom of the ocean!”
“Why, Jake!” was Abbie’s best.
Jake went on: “And it will, too, or I’m a liar. The Germans will get them boats as fast as they build ’em.” He laughed. “I tell you them Kaiser-boys just eats ships.”
“But how were they able to destroy the Clara?” Mamise demanded.
“Easiest thing you know. When she laid up at Norfolk they just put a bomb into her.”
“But how did they know she was going to Norfolk to load?”
“Oh, we––they have ways.”
The little slip from “we” to “they” caught Mamise’s ear. Her first intuition of its meaning was right, and out of her amazement the first words that leaped were: