"

Not, indeed, until the officers came up over the side of the "Grigsby,"
and found Dave Darrin waiting on the deck, did the quartette of officers
discover who their captor was.

"_You?_" gasped the ober-lieutenant! "Impossible!"

"Yes; you didn't expect to see me again, did you?"

"I--I--I thought you were----"

The German checked himself.

"You thought you had sent me to the bottom of the sea," Dave went on. "It
wasn't your fault that you didn't, but you missed your guess."

Dave then gave the order for housing the prisoners below.

"Are you sending the officers to the same place of detention that you are
sending my men?" demanded the ober-lieutenant, a spark of assertiveness
in his manner.

"Unfortunately, I am obliged to do so," Dave answered. "I am aware that
German officers consider themselves to be of a brand of clay much
superior to that used in making their men."

"But we officers are gentlemen!" retorted the ober-lieutenant, drawing
himself up stiffly.

"It's a point that might be argued," returned Darrin, lightly. "Yet
there is no other course, for we have no detention space apart from the
main one on board, so it is the only place that we can use for confining
German officers--and gentlemen."

"May I request the privilege of a few words with you before you send me
below?" requested the ober-lieutenant, unbending a trifle.

"Certainly," Dave assured him, and the guard that was marshaling the
prisoners below permitted the recent German commander to step out of the
line.

"I will see you in my chart-room," said Dave. Lieutenant Fernald, who had
been standing by, caught Dave's signal and entered with his chief.

Once inside Ober-Lieutenant Dreiner turned and gazed at Fernald.

"I had expected a private interview, Herr Darrin," he said, rather
stiffly.

"Lieutenant Fernald is my executive officer, and nothing goes on board
with which he is not familiar," Darrin replied. "Have a seat, Herr
Ober-Lieutenant."

"And must I speak before--before your subordinate?" asked the German, as
he dropped into the chair that had been indicated.

"If you speak at all," Darrin answered.

"But will Herr Fernald keep inviolate what I have to say?"

"In that," Darrin promised, "he will be governed by circumstances."

Dreiner hesitated for a few seconds before he began:

"I--I--er--I have to refer to an incident that followed our last words
together on a former occasion."

"You mean, of course, the time