ia,' a Captain had told me at Keeling. Now we needed eighteen
days to reach Padang, the weather was so rottenly still.

"We had an excellent cook on board; he had deserted from the French
Foreign Legion. But with water we had to go sparingly, each man
received three glasses daily. When it rained, all possible
receptacles were placed on deck and the main sail was spread over the
cabin roof to catch the rain. The whole crew went about naked, in
order to spare our wash, for the clothing from Keeling was soon in
rags. Toothbrushes were long ago out of sight. One razor made the
rounds of the crew. The entire ship had one precious comb.

"As at length we came in the neighborhood of Padang, on Nov. 26, a
ship appeared for the first time and looked after our name. But the
name had been painted over, because it was the former English name. As
I think, 'You're rid of the fellow,' the ship comes again in the
evening, comes within a hundred yards of us. I send all men below
deck. I promenade the deck as the solitary skipper. Through Morse
signals the stranger betrayed its identity. It was the Hollandish
torpedo boat Lyn. I asked by signals, first in English, then twice in
German: 'Why do you follow me?' No answer. The next morning I find
myself in Hollandish waters, so I raise pennant and war flag. Now the
Lyn came at top speed past us. As it passes, I have my men line up on
deck, and give a greeting. The greeting is answered. Then, before the
harbor at Padang, I went aboard the Lyn in my well and carefully
preserved uniform and declared my intentions. The commandant opined
that I could run into the harbor, but whether I might come out again
was doubtful."

"On the South Coast," interjected Lieutenant Wellman, who at that time
lay with a German ship before Padang and only later joined the landing
corps of the Emden, "we suddenly saw a three-master arrive. Great
excitement aboard our German ship, for the schooner carried the German
war flag. We thought she came from New Guinea and at once made all
boats clear, on the Kleist, Rheinland, and Choising, for we were all
on the search for the Emden. When we heard that the schooner carried
the landing corps, not a man of us would believe it."

"They wanted to treat me as a prize!" Muecke now continued. "I said, 'I
am a man of war,' and pointed to my four machine guns. The harbor
authorities demanded a certification for pennant and war flag, also
papers to prove that I was the commander