e of my
passage.

But at the first street corner I saw a man in seafaring dress who
fixed a very keen gaze on me as I came up, and saluted me by touching
his cap.

"Good-night," I said in a friendly voice, slowing down in my walk.

"Good-night, sir. Beg pardon, Captain,"--he came and moved along
beside me--"but you don't happen to know of a job for a seafaring
man, I suppose?"

I stopped dead, and looked him straight in the eyes.

"How many men do you estimate are required to navigate a submarine?"
I asked.

"Fifteen," was the prompt answer.

"How soon can you have them here?" was my next question.

The fellow glanced at his watch.

"It's half-past eleven now, Captain. I could collect them and bring
them here by half-past one."

"Do it, then," I returned and walked swiftly away.

The whole thing, it was evident, had been prearranged, and I did not
choose to waste time in mock negotiations.

I went back to my inn to wait, but there was nothing for me to do,
except examine the cartridges in my revolver. I was not quite sure
how much my crew had been told, and I thought it just possible that I
might have some trouble with them when they found out the nature of
my proceedings.

Punctually at the hour fixed I returned to the street outside the
dockyard, where I found fifteen men assembled.

Glancing over them, I formed the opinion that they were picked men,
on whom I could have relied thoroughly for the work I had been
ordered to do, but who might be all the more likely to mutiny if they
suspected that I was playing false.

I stood in front of them in the silence of the street.

"Now, my men, if there is any one of you who is not prepared to obey
me, even if I order him to scuttle the ship, let him fall out before
we start."

Not a man stirred. Not an eyelash quivered. The German discipline had
done its work.

"I give you notice that the first man who hesitates to carry out my
orders will be shot."

The threat was received with perfect resignation.

"Follow me."

I turned on my heel, and led the way to the dockyard gates, the men
marching after me with a regular tramp which could only have been
acquired on the deck of a man-of-war.

The sentry was, if possible, more indifferent to our approach than
he had been when I had been alone. I threw open the wicket, and bade
the last man close it.

Then we marched in the same order to the place where the five
submarines were moored.

"I am going on