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hundred.”
    The U-boat might be getting clear away. She had made the best use of her superior manoeuvrability, and she had taken full advantage of the necessary time interval intervening between a change of course on her part and the news of it reaching her enemy’s captain. The information reaching Keeling was limited and slow; the deductions to be drawn from it could be faulty--we know in part, and we prophesy in part; the U-boat captain was aware of Keelings limitations.
    “Contact bearing port one-five. Range indefinite.”
    “Very well.”
    Most assuredly had the U-boat fooled him. She had gained some considerable distance on him and widened her bearing. Three minutes ago he had been congratulating himself upon closing on her. Now he felt fear in case she should get clear away. But Keeling was swinging fast.
    “Contact bearing port one-five. Range indefinite.”
    “Very well.”
    With left full rudder Keeling was chasing her tail again in the opposite direction. An ignorant observer might think the analogy to a kitten’s behaviour a close one, if he were not aware of the life-and-death battle she was waging against an invisible opponent.
    “Contact bearing port one-five. Range twelve hundred yards.”
    So that was the measure of what he had lost. If he were fooled a couple more times like this he might well find himself on an opposite course to the U-boat, and the latter would get clear away before he could turn again. The talker was sneezing, explosively, once and then twice. Now everyone was looking at him. The whole battle could hinge upon his mastering the convulsion; the sneeze of one single seaman might change the fate of empires. He straightened himself and pressed his telephone button.
    “Repeat.”
    Everyone waited until he spoke again. “Contact bearing port one-three. Range eleven hundred yards.”
    So Keeling wasregaining the lost ground.
    “You going to do that again?” demanded Krause.
    “No, sir. Don’t think so, sir.”
    The talker had brought his handkerchief out from his bundled clothing, but was not attempting to use it with his instrument clamped before his face. If he was going to have further fits of sneezing it would be best to relieve him. He decided to risk it.
    “Contact bearing port one-one. Range one thousand.”
    “Very well.”
    The U-boat had met with a limitation, too. Having gained in distance from Keeling she was out on a wider arc so that Keeling could turn within her, closing up until equilibrium was again established, for U-boat and destroyer to circle about each other again, like planet and satellite. The equilibrium could only be broken by an extra piece of good fortune on the part of the U-boat enabling her to break off contact altogether--or an extra piece of good management on the part of Keeling enabling her to close with her antagonist. And the time factor might incline to either party; if the struggle were sufficiently prolonged the U-boat would find her batteries and her air exhausted--but if the struggle were sufficiently prolonged Keeling might find herself so far from her post of duty with the convoy that she would have to turn away and rejoin. A game of catch, a game of hide and seek; but a game with table stakes played for keeps.
    “Contact bearing port one-one. Range one thousand.”
    “Very well.”
    Destroyer and submarine were circling about each other. As long as this particular situation prevailed, Keeling had the edge. Time was on her side; the U-boat’s batteries would not last for ever, and the chances were more in favour of Keeling closing the gap through unusual conditions than that the U-boat could simply outrun and out-turn her. As with the last time they had circled, it was up to the U-boat to do something about the situation.
    “Contact bearing port one-one. Range steady at one thousand.”
    “Very well.”
    Krause took a sudden decision. “Right full rudder.”
    A fifth of a second’s hesitation in McAlister’s reply; the tiniest