t of a plant I would like to have left for Fritz, if our
roles had been reversed, and for a while I felt rather more kindly
toward all Fritzes on account of having knocked up against it. That
feeling persisted until three or four months later, when the fortunes of
war--in the shape of a luckily-planted depth-charge--paved the way for
an opportunity for me to tell the story to a certain Hun _Unterseeboot_
officer during the hour or two he was my guest on the way to base. He
spoke English fairly, and understood it well; so that I was able to run
through the yarn just about as I have told it to you. He gave vent to
his approval in guttural 'Ya's' and grunts of satisfaction until I ended
by asking him if he didn't think it was a jolly clever little joke. And
what do you think he said to that?

"'Choke,' he boomed explosively; 'choke, vy, mein frent, dot vos not ein
choke ad all. He vos dryin to zink your destroy'r. Dot ist no choke.'"

The captain stretched himself with a whimsical smile. "How unpleasant it
would be to be shipmates with a chap like that who couldn't see the
funny side of being blown up," he observed presently.

"Just as unpleasant," I replied, "as it is pleasant to be shipmates with
a man who _could_."

After thus rising to the occasion, I was emboldened to ask the captain
to tell me a little more about that "luckily-planted depth-charge" he
had referred to so casually, and its train of consequences.

"Here is the result," he said with a smile, handing me several small
kodak prints from his pocketbook. "What little yarn there is to tell
I'll rattle off for you with pleasure after I've been up to the bridge
for a bit of a 'look-see.' Seems as if she is banging into it harder
than she ought for this course and speed."

The light went out as the automatic switch cut off the current with the
opening of the door, and when it flashed on again, as the door was
slammed shut, I found myself alone, with the prints lying in the middle
of the chart of the North Sea. Two of these showed a thin sliver of a
submarine that might have been of almost any type. A third, however,
showed an unmistakable U-boat, heeling slightly, and with a whaler
alongside, evidently in the act of taking off some of the men crowded
upon the narrow forward deck. And in the background of this print was
lying a long slender four-funneled destroyer that I recognised at once
as either the _Flash_ or another of the same class. On the back of thi