s complete.
Between every couple of hunters--I mean trawlers--there were nets
stretched across to catch a little submarine, and behind these were
dragged mines.

By extending one of the wings in the north, it made a gap toward the
east, and besides I saw that one of the torpedo boats between two groups
of the searching parties had left for the shipwrecked survivors. At this
point, consequently, was our best chance to escape. I laid my course
between the two searching parties, of course, with the periscope, during
the whole time, nearly invisible.

Slowly the ranks of the hunting hounds approached, smoking copiously and
snorting. Now the right moment had arrived to follow the other part of
the hare's program. We shut our eyes--that is, I pulled the periscope
down completely--and proceeded with increased speed, submerging in the
sea as deeply as possible.

I can well imagine how the old hare felt when he ran blindly for his
life. Undoubtedly our feelings were somewhat the same. How easily could
not that little gap toward which we were making be closed by some small
auxiliary of the searchers.

And, if the grappling hooks from one of these got hold of us, there
would be little hope of escape, or of saving ourselves. Then they would
tear at us from all directions and give us the stab that would send us
deep down into the sea for good. No one on board suspected what danger
we went to meet. I had kept all my observations concerning the enemy's
surrounding us to myself and had not mentioned it, so as not to excite
everybody's mind. No one below could at any rate do anything to change
the conditions.

Then from the bow compartment came the report:

"The beating of propellers is discernible to port!"

Shortly thereafter I could hear them, even from the conning tower--a
soft, slow, swelling, and grinding sound. This was not the sound of the
propellers of a destroyer. Such would beat faster, clearer, and more
powerfully. This was the heavily-dragging trawlers' slow beating
propellers.

Strainingly I listened to starboard--nothing could be heard. That was a
good sign, because I could hope that in reality I had reached the gap
and that the sounds of the propellers which we heard to port emanated
from the trawler on the left side of the gap. I was just about, from my
innermost heart, to let out a joyous "hurrah," when, from the bow of the
boat, I heard a new sound which approached with a clear, sharp banging.
It was the to