"The owner of the boat is careful. He has taken his oars to bed with him. But the captain is a clever man. It is a beautiful night. He has plenty of time, and he can paddle with one of the loose boards in the bottom of the dinghy."
"But listen! What became of the little Bavarian?" said Mimika.
"Well, I was not there to see," said Captain Vandermeer, lighting a cigar, "but when the men woke they must all have tried to get out by the same way."
"And they couldn't?" asked Roy. He was watching Vandermeer with a very curious expression—almost as if he were examining an eyewitness.
"The captain was an expert engineer—ah, a magnificent engineer!—as I told you, Roy, and there was a leetle crowbar wedged under what we have been calling the lid of the conning tower."
"Good God, what an idea! You mean they couldn't close the upper lid again?"
"They might think they had closed it." Vandermeer gave a deep guttural chuckle. "Then they would open the lower lid, heh?"
"And then?"
"Why, then the sea would come running into the hull, and they would be drowned."
"Oh, but not the poor little Bavarian!" said Mimika.