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" 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
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