ach and every one of them promptly fell in love
with her and constituted himself henceforth her guardian and her slave.

A moment later the attention of each was called to Plesser by a volley
of invective. They turned in time to see the man running toward von
Schoenvorts who was just rising from the ground. Plesser carried a
rifle with bayonet fixed, that he had snatched from the side of Dietz's
corpse. Von Schoenvorts' face was livid with fear, his jaws working as
though he would call for help; but no sound came from his blue lips.

"You struck me," shrieked Plesser. "Once, twice, three times, you
struck me, pig. You murdered Schwerke--you drove him insane by your
cruelty until he took his own life. You are only one of your
kind--they are all like you from the Kaiser down. I wish that you were
the Kaiser. Thus would I do!" And he lunged his bayonet through von
Schoenvorts' chest. Then he let his rifle fall with the dying man and
wheeled toward Bradley. "Here I am," he said. "Do with me as you
like. All my life I have been kicked and cuffed by such as that, and
yet always have I gone out when they commanded, singing, to give up my
life if need be to keep them in power. Only lately have I come to know
what a fool I have been. But now I am no longer a fool, and besides, I
am avenged and Schwerke is avenged, so you can kill me if you wish.
Here I am."

"If I was after bein' the king," said Olson, "I'd pin the V.C. on your
noble chist; but bein' only an Irishman with a Swede name, for which
God forgive me, the bist I can do is shake your hand."

"You will not be punished," said Bradley. "There are four of you
left--if you four want to come along and work with us, we will take
you; but you will come as prisoners."

"It suits me," said Plesser. "Now that the captain-lieutenant is dead
you need not fear us. All our lives we have known nothing but to obey
his class. If I had not killed him, I suppose I would be fool enough
to obey him again; but he is dead. Now we will obey you--we must obey
some one."

"And you?" Bradley turned to the other survivors of the original crew
of the U-33. Each promised obedience.

The two dead Germans were buried in a single grave, and then the party
boarded the submarine and stowed away the oil.

Here Bradley told the men what had befallen him since the night of
September 14th when he had disappeared so mysteriously from the camp
upon the plateau. Now he learned for