He lay submerged there for a long period,
keeping his men amused with a phonograph, and then carefully came
to the surface. Through the periscope he saw very near him a German
destroyer, but he feared that the explosion of a torpedo sent against
her would damage his own craft, so he allowed her to steam off,
and when she was 600 yards away he let go with two torpedoes. The
second found its mark, and the _S-126_ was no more. He immediately
went beneath the surface and escaped the cordon of destroyers which
immediately searched for him. By October 7 the _E-9_ was back in
Harwich, its home port.
On the 31st of October, 1914, the cross-channel steamer _Invicta_
received the S. O. S. signal and went to rescue the crew of the old
British cruiser _Hermes_, which had been struck by two torpedoes
from a German submarine near Dunkirk. All but forty-four of her
men were saved.
The next victim of a German submarine was the gunboat _Niger_,
which, in the presence of thousands of persons on the shore at
Deal, foundered without loss of life on November 11, 1914. But one
of the German submarines was to go to the bottom in retaliation.
On the 23d of November the _U-18_ was seen and rammed off the Scotch
coast, and some hours later was again seen near by. This time she
was floating on the surface and carrying a white flag. The British
destroyer _Garry_ brought up alongside of lier and took off her
crew, just as she foundered.
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