“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.”