When it was quite dark we started steaming at full speed.

It was extremely thick on the horizon, but clear overhead, with just enough wind and sea to prevent the little noise the engines and screws made being heard.

Every light was out--even the men's pipes; the masts were lowered on to the deck; and if ever a vessel was invisible the _D----n_ was that night.
We passed several outlying cruisers, some unpleasantly near, but still we passed them.

All seemed going favourably, when suddenly I saw through my glasses the long low line of a steamer right ahead, lying as it were across our bows so close that it would have been impossible to pass to the right or left of her without being seen.

A prompt order given to the engine-room (where the chief engineer stood to the engines) to reverse one engine, was as promptly obeyed, and the little craft spun round like a _teetotum_.