of our conning-towers on the
still waters of Blankenberg Harbour it was unlikely that we should ever
see each other again, though consorts in the same waters. I waved to
Stephan from the side of my conning-tower, and he to me. Then I called
through the tube to my engineer (our water-tanks were already filled and
all kingstons and vents closed) to put her full speed ahead.

Just as we came abreast of the end of the pier and saw the white-capped
waves rolling in upon us, I put the horizontal rudder hard down and she
slid under water. Through my glass portholes I saw its light green
change to a dark blue, while the manometer in front of me indicated
twenty feet. I let her go to forty, because I should then be under the
warships of the English, though I took the chance of fouling the moorings
of our own floating contact mines. Then I brought her on an even keel,
and it was music to my ear to hear the gentle, even ticking of my
electric engines and to know that I was speeding at twelve miles an hour
on my great task.

At that moment, as I stood controlling my levers in my tower, I could
have seen, had my cupola been of glass, the vast shadows of the British
blockaders hovering above me. I held my course due westward for ninety
minutes, and then, by shutting off the electric engine without blowing
out the water-tanks, I brought her to the surface. There was a rolling
sea and the wind was freshening, so I did not think it safe to keep my
hatch open long, for so small is the margin of buoyancy that one must run
no risks. But from the crests of the rollers I had a look backwards at
Blankenberg, and saw the black funnels and upper works of the enemy's
fleet with the lighthouse and the castle behind them, all flushed with
the pink glow of the setting sun. Even as I looked there was the boom of
a great gun, and then another. I glanced at my watch. It was six
o'clock. The time of the ultimatum had expired. We were at war.

There was no craft near us, and our surface speed is nearly twice that of
our submerged, so I blew out the tanks and our whale-back came over the
surface. All night we were steering south-west, making an average of
eighteen knots. At about five in the morning, as I stood alone upon my
tiny bridge, I saw, low down in the west, the scattered lights of the
Norfolk coast. "Ah, Johnny, Johnny Bull," I said, as I looked at them,
"you are going to have your lesson, and I am to be your master. It is I
w