ered, with his eyes fixed on the fast-filling
boat.

'Sixteen--seventeen--eighteen,' he counted mechanically. Suddenly a slight
cry escaped his lips, and he started forward.

'Father!' he shouted loudly.

An upright man with keen blue eyes, a man of about fifty, but whose hair
and moustache were almost white, was in the act of getting to the boat. At
Ken's cry, he started violently, stopped short and stared incredulously in
the direction of the sound.

'Father!' shouted Ken again.

'You, Ken?' The tone was one of utter amazement.

'It's me all right, dad,' Ken answered in a voice which shook a little in
spite of himself.

Before their eyes the other seemed to shake off ten years of age. He
sprang into the boat as lightly as a boy. Three more followed, making
twenty-two in all. Then the blocks creaked, and the boat was rapidly
lowered to the water.

Oars began to ply vigorously, and she shot across the intervening space,
and a minute later was alongside the submarine.

'You must wait there, please, gentlemen,' said Strang courteously. 'I have
to deal with the troops at once. Keep well astern.'

Ken was aching to greet his father, but there was plenty for him to do for
the moment. He had to translate the commander's orders, which were that
all those aboard the steamer should get away at once in the boats. He gave
them twenty minutes for the operation.

They were the longest twenty minutes Ken every knew, but they were over at
last. The crowded boats pulled slowly away in a northerly direction, the
big steamer floated empty and helpless.

'Do we board her, sir?' asked young Hotham of Strang.

'Yes, I'll save my torpedoes while I can. Put a good charge of gun-cotton
in her hold. Quick as you can, Hotham. We may have a destroyer down on us
any minute. You may be sure they had plenty of time to use their
wireless.'

He turned to the boatful of released prisoners. They were of every sort,
young and old--French, English, with even one or two Russians and
Belgians.

'Gentlemen,' he said briefly, 'I can't ask you all aboard. The reason is
obvious. In a submarine there is only room for a certain number, and I am
already three beyond my proper complement. The question is, what I am to
do with you for your safety, and I should be obliged if two of you would
come aboard to discuss matters with me. One whom I will specially ask is
Captain Carrington.'

Ken's breath came quickly as he watched his father step across