Bradley had come on deck and was standing beside me. "About one more
of those, and she'll have our range," he said. "She doesn't seem to
take much stock in our Union Jack."

A second shell passed over us, and then I gave the command to change
our direction, at the same time directing Bradley to go below and give
the order to submerge. I passed Nobs down to him, and following, saw
to the closing and fastening of the hatch.

It seemed to me that the diving-tanks never had filled so slowly. We
heard a loud explosion apparently directly above us; the craft trembled
to the shock which threw us all to the deck. I expected momentarily to
feel the deluge of inrushing water, but none came. Instead we continued
to submerge until the manometer registered forty feet and then I knew
that we were safe. Safe! I almost smiled. I had relieved Olson, who
had remained in the tower at my direction, having been a member of one
of the early British submarine crews, and therefore having some
knowledge of the business. Bradley was at my side. He looked at me
quizzically.

"What the devil are we to do?" he asked. "The merchantman will flee
us; the war-vessel will destroy us; neither will believe our colors or
give us a chance to explain. We will meet even a worse reception if we
go nosing around a British port--mines, nets and all of it. We can't
do it."

"Let's try it again when this fellow has lost the scent," I urged.
"There must come a ship that will believe us."

And try it again we did, only to be almost rammed by a huge freighter.
Later we were fired upon by a destroyer, and two merchantmen turned and
fled at our approach. For two days we cruised up and down the Channel
trying to tell some one, who would listen, that we were friends; but no
one would listen. After our encounter with the first warship I had
given instructions that a wireless message be sent out explaining our
predicament; but to my chagrin I discovered that both sending and
receiving instruments had disappeared.

"There is only one place you can go," von Schoenvorts sent word to me,
"and that is Kiel. You can't land anywhere else in these waters. If
you wish, I will take you there, and I can promise that you will be
treated well."

"There is another place we can go," I sent back my reply, "and we will
before we'll go to Germany. That place is hell."

Chapter 3

Those were anxious days, during which I had but little opportunity to
associate