the sailors were allowed to bring us cooling drinks from time to time in
one or two glass jugs (which the Asiatics and Portuguese always made a
grab at first), and both officers and men did all they could to render
our position as bearable as possible. The men amongst us were also
allowed to go to the ship's canteen and buy smokes. We were steaming
gently in a westerly direction all day, occasionally passing quite close
to some small islands and banks of sand, a quite picturesque scene. The
sea was beautifully calm and blue, and on the shores of these banks, to
which we sailed quite close, the water took on colours of exquisite hues
of the palest and tenderest blue and green, as it rippled gently over
coral and golden sands.

Tiffin, consisting of rice, and bacon and beans, was dealt out to us on
deck at midday, and the afternoon passed in the same way as the morning.
The _Wolf's_ chief officer, a hearty, elderly man, came aft to speak to
us. He chaffed us about our oarsmanship in the lifeboats, saying the
appearance of our oars wildly waving reminded him of the sails of a
windmill. "Never use your wireless or your gun," he said, "and you'll
come to no harm from a German raider."

The long hot day seemed endless, but by about five o'clock the two ships
arrived in an atoll, consisting of about fifteen small islands, and the
_Hitachi_ there dropped anchor. The _Wolf_ moved up alongside, and the
two ships were lashed together. Supper, consisting of tinned fruit and
rice, was served out at 5.30, and we were then told that the married
couples and one or two elderly men were to return to the _Hitachi_ that
night. So with some difficulty we clambered from the upper deck of the
_Wolf_ to the boat deck of the _Hitachi_ and returned to find our cabins
just as we had left them in a great hurry the day before. We had not
expected to go on board the _Hitachi_ again, and never thought we should
renew acquaintance with our personal belongings. We ourselves were
particularly sad about this, as we had brought away from Siam, after
twenty years' residence there, many things which would be quite
irreplaceable. We were therefore very glad to know they were not all
lost to us. But we congratulated ourselves that the greater part of our
treasures gathered there had been left behind safely stored in the Bank
and in a go-down in Bangkok.

CHAPTER III

BACK TO THE "HITACHI MARU"

The _Hitachi_ was now a German ship, the Prize Cap