he engines," he said.
"If we can't swim we must sink." He gave the necessary orders and the
boat dropped gradually through the water till she rested on the bottom.

"Now," said von Sperrgebiet. "Turn on the gramophone, one of you, if
you can find it."

There was a pause while someone fumbled in the darkness, and a click.
Then a metallic tune blared forth bravely from the unseen instrument.

"That's right," said von Sperrgebiet in a low voice, speaking for the
last time. "'_Deutschland unter Alles!_'" His laugh was like the bark
of a sick dog.

Twenty fathoms over their heads, under the grey sky, and blown upon by
the strong salt wind, a large man in the uniform of a Lieutenant of the
Naval Reserve was standing in the bows of an Armed Trawler; his gaze
was fixed on something floating upon the surface of the water ahead;
but presently he raised his eyes to the circle of Armed Trawlers around
him riding lazily on the swell. In the rear of the gun in the bows of
each craft stood a little group of men all staring intently at the
floating object. The Lieutenant waved an arm to the nearest consort.

"They reckon they'll take it lying down," he said grimly. "Well, I
don't blame 'em!" He nodded at the figure in the wheel-house.

"Full speed, skipper!" The telegraph clinked, and they moved ahead,
slowly gathering way. Then the Reserve-man turned, facing aft.

"Let her go, George," he said, raising his voice. The trawler fussed
ahead like a self-important hen that has laid an egg. There was a
violent upheaval in the water astern, and a column of foam and wreckage
leaped into the air with a deafening roar.

The Reserve Lieutenant pulled a knife out of his pocket, and, bending
down, thoughtfully added another nick to a long row of notches in the
wooden beam of the trawler's fore hatch.

CHAPTER XIII

SPELL-O!

Lettigne sat on the edge of his sea-chest contemplating a large
fragment of a German shell which he held on his knees.

"Will someone tell me where I am going to pack this interesting relic
of my blood-stained past?" he enquired of the flat at large.

The after cabin-flat had all the appearances of the interior of a
homestead in imminent danger of occupation by an enemy. In front of
each open chest stood a Midshipman feverishly cramming boots and
garments into already bulging portmanteaux and kit-bags. The deck was
littered with rejected collars, pyjamas and underwear; golf-clubs,
cricket-