“Well, then,” suggested Ned, “suppose the captain takes supper here as our guest. Two of us will remain with him to arrange details while the other two hasten away and get a truck to take the boxes to the dock. Can you give us directions for reaching the vessel, Captain?”
“Sure,” assented the captain, seating himself. “Und I know a man vot vould haul your goots, too. I get him,” he added.
“In that case, we’ll all go over together,” proposed Jack. “I don’t like the idea of separating while we’re in a strange town.”
“Perhaps the captain can tell us where we can get some English papers,” ventured Jimmie. “We’d like to get the latest news.”
Wheeling in his chair the captain bawled out an order in Dutch. A waiter came bustling up with an air of deference. Evidently he knew the captain and understood that no delay would be tolerated.
A few words were rapidly spoken, whereupon the waiter hastened away to return presently with several newspapers. These were spread upon the table before the boys, who began a perusal of their contents.
“Gee whiz!” exclaimed Jimmie, glancing at the headlines of the paper which had fallen to his lot. “Listen to this—three vessels sunk in the mouth of the Mersey river by a German submarine identified as the ‘U-13.’ Then there’s been two vessels sunk at the mouth of the Thames!”
“What sunk them?” inquired Harry.
“It says here that they were sunk by a German submarine. In each case the diver has been identified as the ‘U-13’ by the crews of the ill-fated vessels. Now, that’s going some!”