“I will bet on it!” asserted his friend.
“But—a German naval officer commanding a rotten little tramp like the Upsal?” said Lyngstrand, emphasizing his incredulity. “I can’t believe it!”
“Even German ex-naval officers have to live, my friend,” responded Jensen, axiomatically. “And—I ask you—what is open to them but to take service in the mercantile marine of other nations? There is no more German fleet—there are not enough merchant vessels left under the German flag to employ all their trained officers. On the other hand, all the Scandinavian nations have multiplied their trading fleets—they cannot find officers enough for them. A first-class seaman like Horst, speaking Swedish like a native, would find plenty of owners only too willing to employ him.”
“It sounds plausible,” agreed Lyngstrand, but somewhat doubtfully.
“Plausible!” repeated Jensen, scornfully. “It is more than plausible—the more I think of it, the more certain I am. Consider! Is Horst the typical rough merchant skipper? You know perfectly well he is not. You said yourself, the first evening we came aboard, that although he had the soul of a pig he had the manners of a gentleman. How does he speak Swedish—like a man who has spent half his life knocking about harbour drinking-shops? No! He expresses himself with that precise accuracy of the man employing a language well learnt, indeed, but nevertheless foreign to him—like you and I speak English, my friend. And his clothes!—Did you ever know the skipper of a tramp steamer wear a stiff white collar while at sea? Then his curt way of giving orders—no question about discipline, but you should see some of our Swedish forecastle-hands stare at him! One of them stared a moment too long just before you came aboard. He knocked him clean out!—He is a German naval officer, I will swear to it!—More than that, I am convinced that he commanded a submarine!”
“That chart, then——?”
“Is the chart of his sinkings!”
“By God!” said Lyngstrand, solemnly, setting his teeth and staring sternly at the charthouse wall. “If I were sure of it——!”