made preparations to test its water. To land, it would be necessary to
run the U-33 close in to the shore, at least as close as we could, for
even these waters were infested, though, not so thickly, by savage
reptiles. I ordered sufficient water let into the diving-tanks to
lower us about a foot, and then I ran the bow slowly toward the shore,
confident that should we run aground, we still had sufficient lifting
force to free us when the water should be pumped out of the tanks; but
the bow nosed its way gently into the reeds and touched the shore with
the keel still clear.

My men were all armed now with both rifles and pistols, each having
plenty of ammunition. I ordered one of the Germans ashore with a line,
and sent two of my own men to guard him, for from what little we had
seen of Caprona, or Caspak as we learned later to call the interior, we
realized that any instant some new and terrible danger might confront
us. The line was made fast to a small tree, and at the same time I had
the stern anchor dropped.

As soon as the boche and his guard were aboard again, I called all
hands on deck, including von Schoenvorts, and there I explained to them
that the time had come for us to enter into some sort of an agreement
among ourselves that would relieve us of the annoyance and
embarrassment of being divided into two antagonistic parts--prisoners
and captors. I told them that it was obvious our very existence
depended upon our unity of action, that we were to all intent and
purpose entering a new world as far from the seat and causes of our own
world-war as if millions of miles of space and eons of time separated
us from our past lives and habitations.

"There is no reason why we should carry our racial and political
hatreds into Caprona," I insisted. "The Germans among us might kill
all the English, or the English might kill the last German, without
affecting in the slightest degree either the outcome of even the
smallest skirmish upon the western front or the opinion of a single
individual in any belligerent or neutral country. I therefore put the
issue squarely to you all; shall we bury our animosities and work
together with and for one another while we remain upon Caprona, or must
we continue thus divided and but half armed, possibly until death has
claimed the last of us? And let me tell you, if you have not already
realized it, the chances are a thousand to one that not one of us ever
will see the outside