“Fact!” Dan insisted.
“Then what are you going to do when you become an admiral?”
“I’ll have lots of time to think that over,” retorted Dalzell.
Three days later the von Bechtold trial came off before a court-martial of British naval officers. The German commander was found guilty of having landed in Ireland as a spy, and was condemned to be shot, a sentence soon afterward carried out. He would give no information about the civilian found dead on the submarine, but the stranger was believed to have been a civilian government official from Berlin.
Right after that Hartmann, alias Jordan, was placed on trial before an American court-martial on a charge of treason. His trial was short because the prisoner broke down and confessed his identity as a German spy. He implicated two German spies then in Ireland, both of whom had been masquerading as Swedish ship-brokers. These two latter were captured, tried by the British naval authorities, and sentenced to death. Jordan was ordered shot, and soon afterward paid the penalty of his crime before a firing squad.
Runkle, who had been a witness against Hartmann, alias Jordan, was now detached from the ship on which he had been serving, and was placed on waiting orders.
And then, one morning, Dan broke in on Darrin at the naval club, his eyes gleaming.
“I’ve got my command and my sailing orders!” he shouted, gleefully.
“What ship?” Dave asked, springing up.
“The ‘Prince’!” Dalzell exclaimed, jubilantly.