the Germans the
courtesy of a return visit, And while the submarine lay in the harbor
the crew came ashore and were treated to beer by the American sailors,
while crowds of curious were admitted aboard the submersible and shown
about with the most open courtesy.

Captain Rose said he had come to deliver a letter to Count von
Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, but such a mission seemed so trivial
that rumor as to the real intentions of the craft was rife throughout
the entire country. There were suspicions that she had put in for fuel,
or ammunition, or supplies. But nothing to justify these thoughts
occurred. The U-53 hung around through the daylight hours, and at
sunset, with a farewell salute, put to sea.

Did our naval officers think this was the last of her? Possibly, but
probably not. They knew enough of the Germans to realize, or to suspect,
that their minds held little thought those days of social amenities and
that such calls as were made upon neutrals contained motives which,
while hidden, were none the less definite.

The night brought forth nothing, however, and the Navy Department was
beginning to feel that perhaps after all the U-53 was well on her way to
Germany, when early the following morning there came to the
radio-station at Newport an indignant message from Captain Smith of the
Hawaiian-American liner _Kansan_. He asked to know why he had been
stopped and questioned by a German submarine which had halted him in the
vicinity of the Nantucket light-ship at 5.30 o'clock that morning. He
added that after he had convinced the submarine commander as to the
nationality of his ship, he was permitted to proceed.

This looked like business, and Newport became certain of this when
shortly after noon came a radio containing advices as to the sinking of
the steamship _West Point_ off Nantucket. Then at intervals up to
midnight came other messages telling of the sinking of other vessels
until the victims of the undersea craft numbered four British, a Dutch,
and a Scandinavian vessel, one of them, the Halifax liner _Stephana_, a
passenger-vessel, with Americans on board. Reports of vessels torpedoed,
of open boats containing survivors afloat on the sea, followed one
another swiftly until not only Newport but the entire country was
aroused.

Admiral Knight and Admiral Gleaves, who had been keeping the Navy
Department at Washington in touch with every phase of the situation,
beginning with the arrival of the U