n I hailed him: 'I do
not know what will happen to the ship. The war situation may make it
necessary for me to strand it.' He did not want to undertake the
responsibility. I proposed that we work together, and I would take the
responsibility. Then we traveled together for three weeks, from Padang
to Hodeida. The _Choising_ was some ninety meters long and had a speed
of nine miles, though sometimes only four. If she had not accidentally
arrived I had intended to cruise high along the west coast of Sumatra to
the region of the northern monsoon. I came about six degrees north, then
over Aden to the Arabian coast. In the Red Sea the northeastern monsoon,
which here blows southeast, could bring us to Djidda. I had heard in
Padang that Turkey is allied with us, so we would be able to get safely
through Arabia to Germany.

"I next waited for information through ships, but the _Choising_ did not
know anything definite, either. By way of the _Luchs_, the _Koenigsberg_,
and _Kormoran_ the reports were uncertain. Besides, according to
newspapers at Aden, the Arabs were said to have fought with the English.
Therein there seemed to be offered an opportunity near at hand to damage
the enemy. I therefore sailed with the _Choising_ in the direction of
Aden. Lieutenant Gerdts of the _Choising_ had heard that the Arabian
railway now already went almost to Hodeida, near the Perim Strait. The
ship's surgeon there, Docounlang, found confirmation of this in Meyer's
traveling handbook. This railway could not have been taken over by the
Englishmen, who always dreamed of it. By doing this they would have
further and completely wrought up the Mohammedans by making more
difficult the journey to Mecca. Best of all, we thought, we'll simply
step into the express train and whizz nicely away to the North Sea.
Certainly there would be safe journeying homeward through Arabia. To be
sure, we hadn't maps of the Red Sea; but it was the shortest way to the
foe, whether in Aden or in Germany.

[Sidenote: On toward Aden.]

"Therefore, courage! Adenwards!"

[Sidenote: Through the Strait of Perim.]

"On the 7th of January, between 9 and 10 o'clock in the evening, we
sneaked through the Strait of Perim. That lay swarming full of
Englishmen. We steered along the African coast, close past an English
cable layer. That is my prettiest delight--how the Englishmen will be
vexed when they learn that we have passed smoothly by Perim. On the next
evening we saw on