' >J 



" SUBMARINE BILLY 



struck by a bullet, which passed through the right 

 thigh and would have gone through the left if it had 

 uot been stopped by this round steel tobacco-box, 

 which was full of tobacco, and was at the bottom of 

 a deep pocket, which had worked round to the inside 

 of the leg. The hard metal turned the bullet aside, 

 and instead of going through my left thigh it 

 glanced off and went somewhere else — either into the 

 boat or the sea. 



" I was the only one in the boat to be struck or 

 hurt — and I'm glad to say it. 



" The Germans went on bombarding the smack 

 and smashing her up, and she was finished off with 

 bombs. She was blown to pieces, and went down 

 with all her sails set, a pitiful spectacle. This was 

 the work of one of the two submarines — while she 

 was sinking the smack the other was firing on us. 



" When they had done their work both the sub- 

 marines slunk down again into the depths of the 

 sea. 



" For six hours and a half we were in that small 

 boat, and I never expected to do anything but bleed 

 to death. I managed to stanch the bleeding a bit, 

 however, somehow, and when we were picked up — 

 as we were by a big mine-sweeper — I was soon put 

 to rights. They washed my wound and bound 

 it up. They did all they could for me, every man 

 of them — and they didn't forget little Billy either. 



" While they were washing and bandaging me, a 

 wireless message was sent to Yarmouth, where it 

 was known that a smack's crew had been picked up, 

 one of them being severely wounded. 



117 



