nd us.

I searched the banks for anything resembling the craft of which I was
in search, but in vain. We passed many other ships, chiefly
merchantmen bound for Lubeck and Dantzig and other Baltic ports, but
of course without being perceived ourselves.

When we reached the mouth of the Canal, I ordered Orloff to stop.

"I must go ashore here, and inquire about the other boat," I
explained.

I saw from the expression of his face that this step was not quite to
his liking, but he did not venture on any remonstrance.

He brought the boat alongside the bank, and raised her gently to the
surface, to enable me to step on shore.

But my quest proved useless, as perhaps I ought to have foreseen.

The harbor-master, or port captain, to whom I addressed myself,
affected the most entire ignorance of the exit of any submarine
within the last week or more.

"What you suggest is impossible," he assured me. "Every submarine is
well known and carefully guarded, and if one had been permitted to
leave Kiel by way of the Canal, I should have been notified in
advance. No such notification has reached me, and therefore, as you
will see, no such boat can possibly have left."

I suspected that he was lying, but I thought it unsafe to persist.

It occurred to me too late that I had been guilty of some imprudence
in showing so much anxiety on the subject. It was only too probable
that my inquiries would be reported to the Kaiser, who would draw his
own inferences in the event of anything going wrong.

I returned on board my own boat, saying nothing to Orloff, and gave
the order to proceed.

Orloff had handed over the wheel to one of his subordinates, who
steered the submarine out into the blue waters of the North Sea.

As soon as we were well out of reach of the Slesvig shore, I said to
the steersman,

"Now I will take the helm."

Instead of promptly relinquishing it to me, the man turned his head
in search of Orloff, saying at the same time,

"Do you understand the course, sir?"

I saw that if I meant to be master of the vessel, I must prove that
my words of the night before were spoken in earnest. I drew my
revolver, and put a bullet through the mutineer's head.

CHAPTER XXXII

THE DOGGER BANK

The sound of the explosion reverberated through the little craft like
thunder. Orloff and half a dozen more men came rushing up.

"This man disobeyed me," I said, quietly, slipping a fresh cartridge
into the smoking c