Toward morning, I must have dozed, though it seemed to me at thetime that I had lain awake for days, instead of hours. When Ifinally opened my eyes, it was daylight, and the girl's hairwas in my face, and she was breathing normally. I thanked Godfor that. She had turned her head during the night so that as Iopened my eyes I saw her face not an inch from mine, my lipsalmost touching hers.

It was Nobs who finally awoke her. He got up, stretched, turnedaround a few times and lay down again, and the girl opened hereyes and looked into mine. Hers went very wide at first, andthen slowly comprehension came to her, and she smiled.

"You have been very good to me," she said, as I helped her torise, though if the truth were known I was more in need ofassistance than she; the circulation all along my left sideseeming to be paralyzed entirely. "You have been very goodto me." And that was the only mention she ever made of it; yetI know that she was thankful and that only reserve prevented herfrom referring to what, to say the least, was an embarrassingsituation, however unavoidable.

Shortly after daylight we saw smoke apparently coming straighttoward us, and after a time we made out the squat lines of atug--one of those fearless exponents of England's supremacy ofthe sea that tows sailing ships into French and English ports.I stood up on a thwart and waved my soggy coat above my head.Nobs stood upon another and barked. The girl sat at my feetstraining her eyes toward the deck of the oncoming boat."They see us," she said at last. "There is a man answeringyour signal." She was right. A lump came into my throat--forher sake rather than for mine. She was saved, and none too soon.She could not have lived through another night upon the Channel;she might not have lived through the coming day.

The tug came close beside us, and a man on deck threw us a rope.Willing hands dragged us to the deck, Nobs scrambling nimblyaboard without assistance. The rough men were gentle as motherswith the girl. Plying us both with questions they hustled her tothe captain's cabin and me to the boiler-room. They told thegirl to take off her wet clothes and throw them outside the doorthat they might be dried, and then to slip into the captain'sbunk and get warm. They didn't have to tell me to strip after Ionce got into the warmth of the boiler-room. In a jiffy, myclothes hung about where they might dry most quickly, and Imyself was absorbing, through every pore, the welcome heat of thestifling compartment. They brought us hot soup and coffee, andthen those who were not on duty sat around and helped me damn theKaiser and his brood.

As soon as our clothes were dry, they bade us don them, as thechances were always more than fair in those waters that we shouldrun into trouble with the enemy, as I was only too well aware.What with the warmth and the feeling of safety for the girl, andthe knowledge that a little rest and food would quickly overcomethe effects of her experiences of the past dismal hours, I wasfeeling more content than I had experienced since those threewhistle-blasts had shattered the peace of my world theprevious afternoon.

But peace upon the Channel has been but a transitory thing sinceAugust, 1914. It proved itself such that morning, for I hadscarce gotten into my dry clothes and taken the girl's apparelto the captain's cabin when an order was shouted down into theengine-room for full speed ahead, and an instant later I heardthe dull boom of a gun. In a moment I was up on deck to see anenemy submarine about two hundred yards off our port bow. She hadsignaled us to stop, and our skipper had ignored the order; butnow she had her gun trained on us, and the second shot grazedthe cabin, warning the belligerent tug-captain that it was timeto obey. Once again an order went down to the engine-room, andthe tug reduced speed. The U-boat ceased firing and ordered thetug to come about and approach. Our momentum had carried us alittle beyond the enemy craft, but we were turning now on thearc of a circle that would bring us alongside her. As I stoodwatching the maneuver and wondering what was to become of us, Ifelt something touch my elbow and turned to see the girl standingat my side. She looked up into my face with a rueful expression."They seem bent on our destruction," she said, "and it looks likethe same boat that sunk us yesterday."

"It is," I replied. "I know her well. I helped design her andtook her out on her first run."

The girl drew back from me with a little exclamation of surpriseand disappointment. "I thought you were an American," she said."I had no idea you were a--a--"

"Nor am I," I replied. "Americans have been building submarinesfor all nations for many years. I wish, though, that we had gonebankrupt, my father and I, before ever we turned out thatFrankenstein of a thing."

We were approaching the U-boat at half speed now, and I couldalmost distinguish the features of the men upon her deck.A sailor stepped to my side and slipped something hard and coldinto my hand. I did not have to look at it to know that it wasa heavy pistol. "Tyke 'er an' use 'er," was all he said.

Our bow was pointed straight toward the U-boat now as I heardword passed to the engine for full speed ahead. I instantlygrasped the brazen effrontery of the plucky English skipper--hewas going to ram five hundreds tons of U-boat in the face of hertrained gun. I could scarce repress a cheer. At first theboches didn't seem to grasp his intention. Evidently theythought they were witnessing an exhibition of poor seamanship,and they yelled their warnings to the tug to reduce speed andthrow the helm hard to port.

We were within fifty feet of them when they awakened to theintentional menace of our maneuver. Their gun crew was off itsguard; but they sprang to their piece now and sent a futile shellabove our heads. Nobs leaped about and barked furiously. "Let 'emhave it!" commanded the tug-captain, and instantly revolvers andrifles poured bullets upon the deck of the submersible. Two ofthe gun-crew went down; the other trained their piece at thewater-line of the oncoming tug. The balance of those on deckreplied to our small-arms fire, directing their efforts towardthe man at our wheel.

I hastily pushed the girl down the companionway leading to theengine-room, and then I raised my pistol and fired my first shotat a boche. What happened in the next few seconds happened soquickly that details are rather blurred in my memory. I saw thehelmsman lunge forward upon the wheel, pulling the helm around sothat the tug sheered off quickly from her course, and I recallrealizing that all our efforts were to be in vain, because of allthe men aboard, Fate had decreed that this one should fall firstto an enemy bullet. I saw the depleted gun-crew on the submarinefire their piece and I felt the shock of impact and heard theloud explosion as the shell struck and exploded in our bows.

I saw and realized these things even as I was leaping into thepilot-house and grasping the wheel, standing astride the deadbody of the helmsman. With all my strength I threw the helmto starboard; but it was too late to effect the purpose ofour skipper. The best I did was to scrape alongside the sub.I heard someone shriek an order into the engine-room; the boatshuddered and trembled to the sudden reversing of the engines,and our speed quickly lessened. Then I saw what that madman ofa skipper planned since his first scheme had gone wrong.

With a loud-yelled command, he leaped to the slippery deck of thesubmersible, and at his heels came his hardy crew. I sprang fromthe pilot-house and followed, not to be left out in the cold whenit came to strafing the boches. From the engine room companionwaycame the engineer and stockers, and together we leaped after thebalance of the crew and into the hand-to-hand fight that wascovering the wet deck with red blood. Beside me came Nobs, silentnow, and grim. Germans were emerging from the open hatch to takepart in the battle on deck. At first the pistols cracked amidstthe cursing of the men and the loud commands of the commander andhis junior; but presently we were too indiscriminately mixed tomake it safe to use our firearms, and the battle resolved itselfinto a hand-to-hand struggle for possession of the deck.

The sole aim of each of us was to hurl one of the opposing forceinto the sea. I shall never forget the hideous expression uponthe face of the great Prussian with whom chance confronted me.He lowered his head and rushed at me, bellowing like a bull.With a quick side-step and ducking low beneath his outstretchedarms, I eluded him; and as he turned to come back at me, I landeda blow upon his chin which sent him spinning toward the edge ofthe deck. I saw his wild endeavors to regain his equilibrium;I saw him reel drunkenly for an instant upon the brink of eternityand then, with a loud scream, slip into the sea. At the sameinstant a pair of giant arms encircled me from behind and liftedme entirely off my feet. Kick and squirm as I would, I couldneither turn toward my antagonist nor free myself from hismaniacal grasp. Relentlessly he was rushing me toward the sideof the vessel and death. There was none to stay him, for eachof my companions was more than occupied by from one to three ofthe enemy. For an instant I was fearful for myself, and then Isaw that which filled me with a far greater terror for another.

My boche was bearing me toward the side of the submarine againstwhich the tug was still pounding. That I should be ground todeath between the two was lost upon me as I saw the girl standingalone upon the tug's deck, as I saw the stern high in air and thebow rapidly settling for the final dive, as I saw death fromwhich I could not save her clutching at the skirts of the womanI now knew all too well that I loved.

I had perhaps the fraction of a second longer to live when Iheard an angry growl behind us mingle with a cry of pain and ragefrom the giant who carried me. Instantly he went backward to thedeck, and as he did so he threw his arms outwards to save himself,freeing me. I fell heavily upon him, but was upon my feet inthe instant. As I arose, I cast a single glance at my opponent.Never again would he menace me or another, for Nob's great jawshad closed upon his throat. Then I sprang toward the edge of thedeck closest to the girl upon the sinking tug.

"Jump!" I cried. "Jump!" And I held out my arms to her.Instantly as though with implicit confidence in my ability tosave her, she leaped over the side of the tug onto the sloping,slippery side of the U-boat. I reached far over to seizeher hand. At the same instant the tug pointed its sternstraight toward the sky and plunged out of sight. My handmissed the girl's by a fraction of an inch, and I saw her slipinto the sea; but scarce had she touched the water when I wasin after her.

The sinking tug drew us far below the surface; but I had seizedher the moment I struck the water, and so we went down together,and together we came up--a few yards from the U-boat. The firstthing I heard was Nobs barking furiously; evidently he had missedme and was searching. A single glance at the vessel's deckassured me that the battle was over and that we had beenvictorious, for I saw our survivors holding a handful of theenemy at pistol points while one by one the rest of the crew wascoming out of the craft's interior and lining up on deck with theother prisoners.

As I swam toward the submarine with the girl, Nobs' persistentbarking attracted the attention of some of the tug's crew, sothat as soon as we reached the side there were hands to helpus aboard. I asked the girl if she was hurt, but she assuredme that she was none the worse for this second wetting; nor didshe seem to suffer any from shock. I was to learn for myselfthat this slender and seemingly delicate creature possessedthe heart and courage of a warrior.

As we joined our own party, I found the tug's mate checking upour survivors. There were ten of us left, not including the girl.Our brave skipper was missing, as were eight others. There hadbeen nineteen of us in the attacking party and we had accountedin one way and another during the battle for sixteen Germans andhad taken nine prisoners, including the commander. His lieutenanthad been killed.

"Not a bad day's work," said Bradley, the mate, when he hadcompleted his roll. "Only losing the skipper," he added, "wasthe worst. He was a fine man, a fine man."

Olson--who in spite of his name was Irish, and in spite of hisnot being Scotch had been the tug's engineer--was standing withBradley and me. "Yis," he agreed, "it's a day's wor-rk we're afterdoin', but what are we goin' to be doin' wid it now we got it?"

"We'll run her into the nearest English port," said Bradley,"and then we'll all go ashore and get our V. C.'s," heconcluded, laughing.

"How you goin' to run her?" queried Olson. "You can't trustthese Dutchmen."

Bradley scratched his head. "I guess you're right," he admitted."And I don't know the first thing about a sub."

"I do," I assured him. "I know more about this particular subthan the officer who commanded her."

Both men looked at me in astonishment, and then I had to explainall over again as I had explained to the girl. Bradley and Olsonwere delighted. Immediately I was put in command, and the firstthing I did was to go below with Olson and inspect the craftthoroughly for hidden boches and damaged machinery. There wereno Germans below, and everything was intact and in ship-shapeworking order. I then ordered all hands below except one man whowas to act as lookout. Questioning the Germans, I found that allexcept the commander were willing to resume their posts and aidin bringing the vessel into an English port. I believe that theywere relieved at the prospect of being detained at a comfortableEnglish prison-camp for the duration of the war after the perilsand privations through which they had passed. The officer,however, assured me that he would never be a party to the captureof his vessel.

There was, therefore, nothing to do but put the man in irons.As we were preparing to put this decision into force, the girldescended from the deck. It was the first time that she or theGerman officer had seen each other's faces since we had boardedthe U-boat. I was assisting the girl down the ladder and stillretained a hold upon her arm--possibly after such support was nolonger necessary--when she turned and looked squarely into theface of the German. Each voiced a sudden exclamation of surpriseand dismay.

"Lys!" he cried, and took a step toward her.

The girl's eyes went wide, and slowly filled with a great horror,as she shrank back. Then her slender figure stiffened to theerectness of a soldier, and with chin in air and without a wordshe turned her back upon the officer.

"Take him away," I directed the two men who guarded him, "and puthim in irons."

When he had gone, the girl raised her eyes to mine. "He is theGerman of whom I spoke," she said. "He is Baron von Schoenvorts."

I merely inclined my head. She had loved him! I wondered if inher heart of hearts she did not love him yet. Immediately Ibecame insanely jealous. I hated Baron Friedrich von Schoenvortswith such utter intensity that the emotion thrilled me with aspecies of exaltation.

But I didn't have much chance to enjoy my hatred then, foralmost immediately the lookout poked his face over the hatchwayand bawled down that there was smoke on the horizon, dead ahead.Immediately I went on deck to investigate, and Bradley came with me.

"If she's friendly," he said, "we'll speak her. If she's not,we'll sink her--eh, captain?"

"Yes, lieutenant," I replied, and it was his turn to smile.

We hoisted the Union Jack and remained on deck, asking Bradleyto go below and assign to each member of the crew his duty,placing one Englishman with a pistol beside each German.

"Half speed ahead," I commanded.

More rapidly now we closed the distance between ourselves and thestranger, until I could plainly see the red ensign of the Britishmerchant marine. My heart swelled with pride at the thought thatpresently admiring British tars would be congratulating us uponour notable capture; and just about then the merchant steamermust have sighted us, for she veered suddenly toward the north,and a moment later dense volumes of smoke issued from her funnels.Then, steering a zigzag course, she fled from us as though we hadbeen the bubonic plague. I altered the course of the submarineand set off in chase; but the steamer was faster than we, and soonleft us hopelessly astern.

With a rueful smile, I directed that our original course beresumed, and once again we set off toward merry England.That was three months ago, and we haven't arrived yet; noris there any likelihood that we ever shall.The steamer we had just sighted must have wirelessed a warning,for it wasn't half an hour before we saw more smoke on thehorizon, and this time the vessel flew the white ensign of theRoyal Navy and carried guns. She didn't veer to the north oranywhere else, but bore down on us rapidly. I was just preparingto signal her, when a flame flashed from her bows, and an instantlater the water in front of us was thrown high by the explosionof a shell.

Bradley had come on deck and was standing beside me. "About onemore of those, and she'll have our range," he said. "She doesn'tseem to take much stock in our Union Jack."

A second shell passed over us, and then I gave the command tochange our direction, at the same time directing Bradley to gobelow and give the order to submerge. I passed Nobs down to him,and following, saw to the closing and fastening of the hatch.

It seemed to me that the diving-tanks never had filled so slowly.We heard a loud explosion apparently directly above us; the crafttrembled to the shock which threw us all to the deck. I expectedmomentarily to feel the deluge of inrushing water, but none came.Instead we continued to submerge until the manometer registered fortyfeet and then I knew that we were safe. Safe! I almost smiled.I had relieved Olson, who had remained in the tower at my direction,having been a member of one of the early British submarine crews,and therefore having some knowledge of the business. Bradley wasat my side. He looked at me quizzically.

"What the devil are we to do?" he asked. "The merchantman willflee us; the war-vessel will destroy us; neither will believe ourcolors or give us a chance to explain. We will meet even a worsereception if we go nosing around a British port--mines, nets andall of it. We can't do it."

"Let's try it again when this fellow has lost the scent,"I urged. "There must come a ship that will believe us."

And try it again we did, only to be almost rammed by a huge freighter.Later we were fired upon by a destroyer, and two merchantmenturned and fled at our approach. For two days we cruised upand down the Channel trying to tell some one, who would listen,that we were friends; but no one would listen. After ourencounter with the first warship I had given instructionsthat a wireless message be sent out explaining our predicament;but to my chagrin I discovered that both sending and receivinginstruments had disappeared.

"There is only one place you can go," von Schoenvorts sent wordto me, "and that is Kiel. You can't land anywhere else inthese waters. If you wish, I will take you there, and I canpromise that you will be treated well."

"There is another place we can go," I sent back my reply, "and wewill before we'll go to Germany. That place is hell."