The Good Shepherd Read Online Free PDF

course, and he had to train round his binoculars as Keeling turned. The ship leading the starboard column six miles away lengthened as he presented her side to his gaze; the three “islands” of her superstructure differentiated themselves in his sight now that she was nearly broadside on to him. A heavy roll on the part of Keeling swept the-ship out of the field of his binoculars; he found himself looking at the heaving sea, and he had to retrain the glasses, balancing and swaying with the roll to keep the convoy under observation. There was confusion almost instantly. The convoy changed from an almost orderly checker-board of lines and columns into a muddle of ships dotted haphazard, ships shearing out of line, ships trying to regain station, columns doubling up with the tail crowding on the head. Krause tried to keep the whole convoy under observation, even though the farthest ships were hardly visible in the thick weather; a collision might call for instant action on his part. He could detect none, but there must be some tense moments in the heart of the convoy.
    The seconds, the minutes, were passing. The front of the convoy was an indented line. To all appearances there were not the nine columns that there should have been, but ten, eleven, no, twelve. On the starboard quarter of the Commodore an intrusive ship appeared. Ships were straying, as was only to be expected, out beyond the starboard leader. If one single ship did not obey orders exactly, did not reduce speed at the correct moment, or turned too soon or too late, ten ships might be forced out of station, jostling each other. As Krause watched he saw one of the most distant ships turning until her stern was presented to him. Someone out there of necessity or from recklessness was turning in a full circle; squeezed out from his position he was about to try to nose his way into it again. And out there on that heaving expanse of water could be a U-boat, possibly one commanded by a cautious captain, hanging on the outskirts of the convoy. An outlying ship like that would be a choice victim, to be torpedoed without any chance of one of the escort running down to the attack at all. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the Devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
    There were flag-hoists ascending the Commodore’s halyards, presumably orders designed to straighten out the confusion. Inexperienced men would be trying to read them, through ancient telescopes, and with their ships heaving and swaying under their feet. Krause swung round to examine the port side column over Keeling’s quarter. That was in the least disorder, as might be expected; Krause looked beyond them. In the haze on the far horizon he could see a dot with a line above it. That was Viktor, coming up at her best speed to resume her station. James, with her poor sixteen knots, must be far astern of her.
    As Krause turned back to re-examine the convoy a bright flash of light caught his eye, a series of flashes, from the Commodore. She was sending a searchlight signal, and her searchlight was trained straight at Keeling. It would be a signal for him; P-L-E- he fell behind with his reading of it, for the transmission was too fast for him. He looked up at his signallers; they were reading it without difficulty, one man noting down the letters as read to him by the other. A longish message, not one of desperate urgency then--and for moments of desperate urgency there were far more rapid means of communication. Up above they blinked back the final acknowledgment.
    “Signal for you, sir,” called the signalman, stepping forward pad in hand.
    “Read it.”
    “ ‘Comconvoy to Comescort. Will you please direct your corvette on the starboard side to assist in getting convoy into order, question. Would be grateful.’ “
    “Reply ‘Comescort to Comconvoy. Your last. Affirmative.’ “
    “ ‘Comescort to Comconvoy. Your last. Affirmative.’ Aye aye, sir.”
    Comconvoy