up. The terrific
jolting ceased. The hand of the manometer moved upwards, and, after a
few seconds, the boat's broad, dripping back broke through the surface.

There is the buoy! Now full speed ahead! We'll be soon there--now but a
few hundred meters more and then the game is ours--a game on which life
and death depended; a game which would have turned our hair white if we
had not been so young, and if we had not, through horrible dangers,
been united by true and faithful bonds.

As soon as we had placed ourselves on the right side of the longed-for
buoy we again hurled ourselves deep down into the cool sea as happily as
a fish which for a long time had been on dry land, and suddenly gets
into its own element again.

The first and most dangerous part of our journey through the
"Witch-Kettle" was over, although not without its horrible experiences.
The narrow inlet was passed and also the several sea miles, wide and
free from reefs and other navigation difficulties. Thus we merrily
glided about in the deep and, in good spirits, hammered and listened and
felt our splendid, hard-tried, heavily-tested boat all over back and
forth, to see if it had pulled through without a leak from the pit of
the rolling breakers; and we soon all forgot. As long as the nerves were
at a continuous tension we had no time to think about past events. And
though we had happily passed through and over mines and reefs, still the
day was far from ended, and our main task was still before us.

This day continually brought us new and unexpected surprises, so that,
at last, we had a gruesome feeling that everything had united itself for
our destruction. First there were the trawlers; then the motor boats,
which in pairs, with a steel net between them, searched through the
channel where they suspected that U-boats were lurking. Every time we
stuck up our periscope cautiously in order to look around a bit, it
never failed that we had one of those searching parties right in front
of us, so that we must submerge in a hurry to a greater depth in order
not to be caught by the dangerous nets. And if for a short time there
was an opportunity to scan the horizon undisturbed, then the atmosphere
was thick, and we were unable to locate the shores, which we knew were
close at hand, so that at last we hardly knew where we were, as the
currents in these parts could not be estimated. Since the famous buoy we
had not seen any mark which would in any degree assist