at he knows. The stupidest one, eh? I wonder why
any Fritz wouldn't do, then!"

Runkle found his man within five minutes, detached him from the other
prisoners, and led him to the chart-room. Darrin tried his own German on
the fellow, asking:

"Your craft had just arrived from the base port?"

The man stared, then slowly nodded.

"How many mines did you have on board when you left the base port?"

"Thirty, I heard."

"You planted some on the way?"

"A few, so I heard."

"Most of the mines you were to deliver here tonight?"

"Yes."

"How many trips a week has your craft been making between here and the
base port?"

"Usually about four."

"Did you always deliver, here, to the same mine-layer?"

"No; that was as it happened. Sometimes to one boat, sometimes to
another."

"How many mines could your craft carry?"

"Thirty."

As this agreed with the information supplied by Ensign Andrews, Dave
believed that the seaman was telling the truth.

"Did your craft always come to these same waters to deliver mines to
mine-layers?"

"Always, since I have been aboard, to some one of the shoals in this
stretch of them," replied the sailor.

"Do you know how many mine-layers wait over here on the English side to
have mines delivered to them?"

"No, but they are not so many."

"A few, supplied four times a week, can plant a lot of mines," quizzed
Darrin.

"Oh, yes."

"And the craft you were aboard was one of the smaller ones that brought
cargoes of mines. Your people have some that carry much larger numbers of
mines?"

"Yes, and the larger boats that bring mines over to the real mine-layers
travel faster under water than our boat did."

"So that these larger boats can make at least five round trips a week?"
Dave asked.

"Oh, yes."

"You have not told me the name of your base port," Darrin went on.

"And I don't intend to," retorted the seaman. "You are asking me too
many questions. I should not have said as much as I did, and I shall not
answer any more questions."

"You do not need to," Dave assured him. "I already know the answers to a
lot of questions that I might have asked you. But you look like a
reasonable fellow, and also like a fellow fond of some of the good things
of life. Had I found you more ready to talk I might have arranged for you
to have a pleasanter time in the English prison than your mates will
have."

"A pleasanter time until the hangman called for us?" demanded the German,