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CHAPTER 1IL--(Cont'd.) | panwhile he 5 Théy stepped into the positions | prepared the tube for action with quickness and certainty of lo tice. The deadly missile was al- Yeally in place; he knew now when it, put there. ' In a few minutes lights ware 'snapped off, except a nse: sively on the handle of. his, w & ; 1 % a a : 3 ntly ti ) their work, the panels out through thinking fo more as the ship settled plan was Shape J1 bulb i which barely. illuminated|X' sighting mechanism. Thea a pl slid Back, and a large porthole pened in the larboard bow. Crane : d not see the doomed freighter, but he could see the reflection of her 1i s on the water. . There were a low orders, a clicking of mach- , and then a sudden hiss of es- caping air as a long black shadwo shot through the open porthole. Re} gardless of danger, Crane leaped up, and scrambled into his ventilator. The night was black, the sky over- ' Hardly a thousand yards away, and slightly in advance, the British 'vessel glided along, her bulk pricked out by occasional lights. - She seemed not to realise the Cocos' presence. Everything was calm and quiet; his senses refused to realise the mean- ing of that sinister black shape slip-- ping so silently through the black A few moments thus, and then a red glare showed at the ffeighter's; water-line and flamed upward, setting out every detail of the scene like a photographer's flashlight. He saw the big freighter heel over; a quarter of her port-side disappeared, show- ing her interior structure like a house| struck by a cyclone. The glare died | down; then a second explosion came; as the water reached her boilers, and; a shower of embers from her furnaces | flew out and hissed into the sea. A muffled roar filled his ears, asharp blast of air struck his face, and the! Cocos rocked and tossed in the waves. All was dark' now; only a black bulk showed where the freighter lay--| a black bulk that settled slowly, slow-| ly lower. A jumble of minor sounds came across to him, small explosions, screams, shouts, commands. The black bulk heaved once endwise, set--| tled back gently, and disappeared, For a few moments there was silence. Then, like the crafk of a whip, the Cocos's searchlight leaped across the waters and played upon the spot.~ A little wreckage floated--dsurprisingly little. A few men clung to boxes or planks, and one small boat, with about a dozen occupants, rowed toward them. The Cocos was swinging in closer, and Crane expected to see a boat manned for the rescue, Then he heard a crisp order forward, and saw the crew of the quick-firer leap to stations, The gun swung round; three sharp explosions rent the air in rapid succession. Three more ex- plosions echoed back as the shells reached their mark, and the small boat crumpled like an eggshell. Once more the searchlight swept the scene, then flickered out; the hum of the en-- gines quickened, and the nose of the ship swung away to the west. Sick at heart, sick in mind and body, Crane crept down from the lookout, and lay almost listlessly watching the German crew as they opened the near- . est box and fitted another torpedo into the tube. For the first time he rea-- lised the capabilities of the literal, sci- entific Teutonic mind. The men be- fore him did not look cruel or brutal. ° They were simply carrying out a plan to jts logical conclusion. Their operations could be carried on only, by absolute wmecrecy. They could not burden themselves with prisoners. They knew before they attacked that the crew of the freighter must die. The destruction of the few miserable, helpless survivors was, to them, not murder, but a simple military mea- sure. They must not be left to be picked up and to spread their story. It was no worse than dropping bombs | from aircraft on sleeping cities, or shelling towns filled with non-com- batants, both common events in the present war. Nevertheless his flesh crept and his fingers closed convul- 1 | | | she stopped at small trading stations, | much he tientl; ¢omé, CH W. His first act was to locate the mech anism that opened the con¢ealed door: He tried it; the panels parted easily. He opened the door wide enough to slip through, found that he could operate it from the inside, and closed it be-| r % = hind him, Then he went carefully over he filtted back into place, ] every detail of the giant tube and the cracks with a mixture of sawdust and with the soil and the season. In any lay-out of the room. The ceilifig' baked beans, colored with scraped iron' case they 'should be covered with half hung low on heavybeams; that was rust. These shells were connectéd-up. the cockpit of the gun overhead. was familiar, with all the details of cracks in the pla torpedo construction. He went back dust, - The wires ran to his den for his tools, then opened freight and up to his lookout station the breech of the tube.. For two under the ventilator. * The free ends averag hours he worked silently and rapidly;| were fastened some three. inches a-- one and a half inches. then he closed the breech, arranged part, so that he could bridge. the gap' everything as he had found it, and with his saw-blade. stoog up with a sigh of relief. He!in a lead from the electric-light wires, had disarranged the steering appar- and this plant was ready. A simple tus of the great steel fish inside. In-! touch of his switch would seal the stead of swimming straight ahead to! fate of every man around the torpedo- its mark, this one would curve rapid-{ tube and the gun above. ! C ly away and lose itself in the sea. The thing thaf worried him most ter yields will be produced from seed So he closed the bulkhead door and|was the" uncertainty as to conditions sown in a good 'seed bed than from sought out one of the smaller iron-|in the stern of the ship. He sugpect- that sown a few days earlier. in bound boxes. ~ This he opened, and| ed that another gun was found, as he had anticipated, a num- there, but knew nothing of ber of the twenty-pound shells. Four was placed. However, he did not of these he lugged into hia den, then|dare to venture on deck, even at night. carefully hid the box away. Then he| The slightest suspicion of his presence once more retired to his den, where on board meant death, and, worse than seed is sown broadcast, more is neces- the sounds of his work 'were less like death the failure of all his plans, He Sary. More seed is required in a poor ly to be detected. ' had seriously considered death; it was seed bed than in a good one, as fewer It was ticklish work opening the sq easy to blot this ship instantly ly to grow. A lower rate big cartrdiges; but his plans called the face of the waters. A hammer, g may be used for small-ker-| for it, and open them he must. His swung on the nose of one of these neled varietiés than for large-kerneled trusty bag yielded a small coil of torpedos, and the thing was done, He oes for, there are many more of the waterproof fuse and some caps; and would go too, like scores of nameless' former in a bushel. : : when his daylight bedtime arrived the heroes who have given up life gladly] Allow the Winter protection provid- four shells had changed into excellent! to accomplish lesser things for the ©d the plants last Fall to remain upon Eo renades, with five-second fuses. Motherland. = The results were worth {1S plants for some time to come. Meanwhile his chart showed that the. the cost, but for one thing. did It is during the alternate freezing and captain had changed his course, and not believe that the intelligence which thawing weather of late Winter and was now heading south-west. Evid- had conceived and directed this gris- warly Boring that the protection is ently Je had decided to look for vic- ly masquerade was on this ship. 3 mos * tims along the sea-lane between Hon-{ one such craft could operate, why not TI olulu and Australian ports. a dozen? Where er 'not others Maintgining Humus in the Soil... During the next afternoon the Cocos now at large under various disguises? | Ax aluable Jamphlet has just been was aga chased by a warship, a fast It was his duty to se that the in-i SPU oF fie Nova Scotia Department ritish destroyer this time, which put| formation he had should reach the Ad. of Agriculty A up a determined race. But the miralty, that the ports and lanes of gail saliivation and ope in that pro- Cocos's powerful engines settled to the Seven Seas be watched for such' Ln ong iting 3 t go a series of their task, and maintained a lead be-| ghouls. So he could take no un- oo Dp ng an : e Snel iol yond the range of the destroyers's necessary chances with his life yet. Io the ® Sar) I» grieuliure shells. The ecaptain did not seem! For two days longer the Cocos cruis- 4 8 ed . 8, apticies have anxious to show his utmost speed; he, ed north-ward through the Indian! = {opscia y ry pe ¥ experts simply kept his distance till night Ocean, while Crane grew restless and gor £ a ung. gi. Ya mabe In came on. Then he dodged to and nervous from enforced confinement on ea oF a i Yel, TB, fro for a while with lights blanketed, and inactivity. Then, in early morn-! a gir y . abl Sng end presently left the British ship far (ing, the lookout reported smoke al ss ng valusble ;hints to the leeward, her ineffectual search- head. Soon it apeared that they were ! oy ! light playing back and forth over the overhauling a floet of three large re sey be 1 singained XH ae empty waste. pacsenger-steamers convoyed by a practices: -- y: the Tolowmg The same ruse had to be repeated: battleship which was "in the lead.i" (3) Live stock farmi ith. its nex} day this time for the benefit of When this was learned, the Cocos! attendant use of barn a BO ees Sodacy. Crone] seen spesd and allowed the fiotillal (3). Reasonably' short dotations | gathered over the "phone that she was to draw away. At sundown the Took-! which clover and y ass 80ds Are . acting as convoy to a fleet of five! out reported the smoke barely visible.| ed 'under at + grid than 3 P 5 merchant vessels. Then, too, certain! The crisis was still postponed. "| years intervals, code messages, picked up during the About eight o'clock, however, ames-| ""(c) The use of clover, always night by the wireless operator, seem--| sage passed over the 'phone that! whos seeding down, ' y ed to indicate that a small gray ship,! brought Crane up on the alert. Picked (d) The plowing under in extreme having given the slip to several war-| up by the wireless operator, it identie! instances of green crops, such. ag buck- vessels, was under suspicion. The fied the flotilla ahead as H. M. Battle-! wheat, rye, clover, ve ds ete: captain evidently decided that these| ship Dauntless, convoying three trans: (e) When 3 waters were to well guarded, then he! ports that carried five thousand Aus-| are largely depended upon, short rota would seek new postures; for he set a!tralian troops, bound to the help of : tions and the plowing under of green south-west course at a good speed the Mother Country. The speed of crops are absolutely n 3 which led, through unfrequentéd seas,! the Cocos increased, and her course] | The humus supply may be deplet- toward the Dutch East Indies. swung 'slightly to port. - Crane let!ed by the following practices: -- A week passed by quietly, and the himself out of his chamber and hur-| (a) Selling hay and other products Cocos was threadingeher way through! ried to his lookout post. Soon thei off the farm instead of feeding the narrow seas of the Dutch archi- deck lights flicked out, and the gun-| live stock. ; pelagoes. Not a ship had been sight crew came forward and began strip-| (b) Careless preserving of barn- ed except two small traders ,with ping the piece. He realised that thé yard manure. which the Cocos exchanged signals, captain would try to sink one or more] (c), Growing too many successive reporting herself as bound from the!of these transportsyand trust to the crops of oats, etc. or roots or even Marshall Group for Borneo. Twice, darkness and his great speed to slip! hay (the latfer is the most common away from the guns of the battleship. source of humus depletion in Nova left a little freight, and took on small| They represented great. prizes to the Scotia). ; quantities of shell ahd copra; doubt-| captain, well worth the risk, Crane (d) The wrong use of commercial less to strengthen her disguise in| realised that the crisis was at hand,' f¢ zers. N case of necessity. Certainly the; and his courage and determination "In a light, open soil, humus is rapid- shell part of the cargo strengthened her odour perceptibly. Sometimes his actions in a few short minutes, and quently one must apply manure more men walked through the corridor! hig brain cooled and his muscles hard. frequently and follow a shorter rota- within a few feet of Crane, as he lay ened to the task. »~ tion in order to conserve the humus in: his narrow cell; but his luck held. (To be Continued.) < | supply than on heavier soils. " Reduce Fire Risks. Then one dark night they ran the Strait of Sunda, between Sumatra and Rhee me y average farm building is. OE to the other. piittying the. The best depth in should be sown deeper in sandy or when the ground seed bed. The exact date of course varies with the season and with the locality. This does not 'mean that the preparation of the land should be | neglected in order to'sow early. Bet- d seed bed the best rate of seeding in the corn belt is about two and'a half bushels to the acre. If the i Java, and when the morning came were in the India Ocean, standin; CHILDREN AND DISCIPLINE. * All this time Crane had been busily| working at night.and lying hidden by dar = york 5 ssorions nd | Whi ow, by reasoR of his inadequate tools and the constant necessity to work noiselessly and leave behind no of his operations. parents. visible trace of his | We never let the 'it is moist," On the| depth is from one to, Farm 'and sm Oats should be sown as. early in the| dynamite, Then he brought Spring as it is possible to'make a good, There may It deals with soils; commercial fertilizers, rose to meet it. ~ Everything hinged on ly decomposed and lost, and conse-|. is always kept clean, however, is not. so liable to distribute oil. our barns, % D118 or | ya. Deeper seed-|a pr TC when - we are around th Fireside, compares "nd they are about right. be dozens of other methods of reducing fire risks. These are a | few.--J. Fraser in Farm and Dairy. ly NO SMOKING ALLOWED. Famous People Who Detested Tobacco in Every Form. } "A- custom lothsome to "the eye hateful to the nose, harmefull to the braine, dangerous to the lungs, and in the blacke, stinking fume thereof nearest resembling . the horrible Stigian smoke of the pit that is bot- tomelesse." ; So, on one occasion, wrote James I, who hated smoking more than he hated anything else; which recalls the fact that Swifiburne, the poet, de- tested tobacco so much that he for- gave James I for being a knave, tyrant and coward because he "slit the throat of _that blackguard Raleigh who invented this filthy smoking." Gladstone and William Penn hated tobacco like poison, while Wellington abominated smoking to such a de- gree, and was so annoyed by the in- crease of cigar-smoking among of- ficers of the army, that in the eatly 'forties he. issued a General Order (No. 577) which contained a para- graph which would have delighted the heart of James I °It ran thus: "The Commander-in-Chief has been informed that the practice of smok- ing, by the use of pipes, cigars or cheroots, has = become prevalent among the officers of the army, which is not only in itself a species. of intoxication occasioned by the fumes of 'tobacgo, but undoubtedly occasions drinking and tippling by those who acquire the habit." - Both Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort detested smoking, so. tobacco wag taboo wherever the court was. "On the other land, many royal ladies. of Europe, contemporaries of Queen Victoria and her son, have had the reputation of being confirmed smokers. Among them may be | named "Carmen. Sylva," the poetess- MOT re "Fhree to = One small 2 case.' Safe for Lar of gists "tramps sleep in an inch to an inch of moist soil. They | they swear that oy 1 hours, an sling voterinasy specific it - factur QX Press ; ; is was Rossettly while: Carlyl everyone knows, was a greab smoker. iliar--it may be true -- one evening he and Tennyson sat in solemn silence smoking for: "one on each side of the fire- place, and that when the visitor rose to go, Carlyle, night, said, "Man, Alfred, we hae had {a graund nicht; come again soon." lpr TRAINING 16,000,000- MEN. Russia Can Put Huge Army in Field : Before 1918. Colonel Koushetsof, who is now. re- tired and whose activities are con- fined to army missions for the Rus- sian Government, has just returned to Petrograd from a tour of the em- pire, inemding Central Asia, and has to! Figaro, that 16,000,000 Russian, sol- diers, of whom a certain part are a zeady {iained, can easily put in the field between 1916 and 1918, if the war lasts that long. : : " "They are all men of sound con- stitution and of military age" he says. "We will leave in Joace at 'home the men of the older cl corres- nding to the oldest classes an landsturm. Russia enough men of sound constitution fit for war to a breach in the German lines and destroy the Kaiser's strongest armies." * The Whale's Little Joke. Tom--That saying. "It's hard to, keep a good man down," is thousands of years old. t Dick--That so? Tom--For a fact. whale told Jonah. remem ; A Obvious. \ Father (reprovingly)--"Do you know what happens to liars when they, die?" . Johnny--"Yes, gir; ne That's what the / they lie still" It pleases the average man more to have a woman tell him' that he is the first man she ever loved than to have her tell him the truth. = HER SEIGELS _Catarrhal Fever ae Dottie 6 SPORES guaranteed to cure mare, horse or colt. Ra ever known. Get ess dealers or direct from manu, Poe preventive of the all forms of dls- a as he bade him good---- the correspondent of the Paris | od