one A.M.
An hour 's run brought her in sight of the lights of the _ North German _ and her escort . She slowed as she passed them , and told the news . Then she sped on again at full-speed to meet the _ Oceana _ and the two cruisers , which were about fifty miles behind . By one A.M. the three cruisers and the three liners had joined forces , and were steaming westward at twenty knots an hour , the liners in single file led by a cruiser , and having one on each beam . Soon the flashes on the horizon grew more frequent , always drawing closer together . Then those in the westward dropped from the perpendicular to the horizontal , and swept the water as though seeking something . It was not long before the darting rays of one of the searchlights fell across the track of the British flotilla .