"Tell me, Admiral," said Nelson. "What tactics did I employ to gain so signal a victory?"

"You smashed their line by attacking in double column. They failed to employ low raking fire and aimed as usual at your rigging. Once through, you had them."

Nelson sighed, but it was not with relief.

"Thank you, Admiral. You say it's all in here?" He tapped the book with his left hand.

"All there," said Kirkham.

"One thing troubles me, Admiral. How am I to fight this battle if I am not with my fleet?"

"Good heavens!" Kirkham stared at him open-mouthed. The enormity of what had happened seemed just to have sunk in upon him. "Then the ships my watch and radar-men reported must have been yours!"

"Exactly," said Nelson. "And perhaps you would be good enough to tell me how I was plucked from my own admiral's walk to the decks of this very strange vessel?"

"I'm no Einstein," said the American. Then he laughed. "I'm no scientific wizard, Admiral. But that last atom blast that nearly got us must have kicked the Earth right back on its own time trail for a second. It certainly made enough of a fuss. And we may get more any minute."

"What sort of war is this?" Nelson asked, disturbed. "You say you and your men are dying, you talk of earth-shaking 'atom' blasts, yet you fight in sealed cabins."

"Not sealed tightly enough," said Kirkham. "By the way, you are aboard the United States Battleship Kentucky, first capital ship in the world to mount major guided missiles instead of heavy guns. Perhaps this will help you."

He moved quickly to the bookcase, pulled out a few volumes and laid them on the table. They were illustrated histories of sea power, and in them he traced the development of warships from the sail-driven four-deckers of 1805 through the first steam frigates, the early breastwork monitors, the dreadnoughts and the mighty superdreadnoughts of World War Two, to the semi-submersible ships of the new conflict.

"We have them too," he stated, pointing to the last-named. "But we've had all these old-style ships like this wagon we're aboard, built and ready. So they sent us out as a raiding force to plant guided atomic missiles on the enemy's vitals 

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