stunts, under the title of 'British Atrocities,' for some months
now, but as there are slight variations from the truth here and there,
you may still be interested in getting some of the details a bit nearer
the original fount.

"They claimed, for instance, that when one of their 'heroic' U-boats ran
alongside an armed British patrol boat, which had surrendered to it, to
transfer a boarding-party, an officer of the M.L. rushed on deck and
threw down on the deck of the submarine what the skipper of the latter
took to be a packet of secret books, and that this 'packet,' exploding,
eventually resulted in the sinking of the guileless German craft. Now,
about the only thing which is correct about that account is the
statement that a U-boat was sunk. It wasn't an armed M.L. that
surrendered to Herr Ober-Lootenant--armed M.L.'s don't do that sort of
thing, take my word for it--but an unarmed, or practically unarmed,
pleasure yacht, which had apparently become disabled and blown to sea.
And the trusting U-boat did not come alongside to put aboard a prize
crew to navigate its captive to a German port as they'd try to make you
believe, but only to sink it with bombs placed in the hold, so as to
save shells or a torpedo. And it wasn't a packet of secret books that
put the pirate down, but a 'baby,' and _my_ baby at that. No, I don't
mean that I threw a real child of mine to Moloch--I haven't any to
throw--but only that the idea of this literal _enfant terrible_, with a
percussion cap on the top of his head and a can of T.N.T. for a body,
originated under my hat.

"It's not surprising that the Huns didn't get the thing straight at
first, though I believe one of their later versions does have a child in
the cast, for none of the Germans present have yet returned to tell just
what happened. About half of them never will see their beloved
'Vodderland' again, and I don't mind telling you that I'm not wearing
any crepe on my sleeve on that account, either. Do you know"--K----'s
face flushed red and his brow contracted in the anger the thought
aroused--"that those ---- pirates were going right ahead to sink what
they thought was nothing but a pleasure yacht, with a number of women
and children in it, although it was plain as day to them that the one
boat carried would founder under a quarter of our number? That's your
Hun every time, and it was just that insensate lust of his to murder
anything helpless that I reckoned on in baiting my