“I dink you haf for yourself made idt troubles,” he remarked.
“Trouble! In what way?” demanded Jack. “The fellow is an arrant coward. He——”
“Ah yah, dot is so, but den he is Herr——”
“Gracious, have you got hair on your brain, too?”
“Yah,” was the innocent response. “He is a big Professor at a Cherman War College. He is a great man in Germany, der Herr Professor Radwig.”
“Well, Mr. Earwig, or whatever his name is, may be a great man as you say, Hans, my boy, but he is also a great coward. As for his threat to make trouble with the captain, that does not bother me in the least. To begin with, I’m only a volunteer, as it were, and in the second place, I’ll bet you a cookie or one of those big red apples you’re so fond of, that Mr. Earwig will avoid discussing the events of last night as much as he can. I’ve heard the last of him.”
But in this Jack was wrong. In days that lay ahead of the boys, they were to find that Herr Professor Radwig was ordained to play no unimportant part in their lives.
CHAPTER VI.
SMOKE ON THE HORIZON.
Late that afternoon Jack, who had just come on deck, was in time to notice an unusual thrill of excitement among the already overwrought passengers. On the northern horizon was a smudge of smoke, and a dark hull bearing down on them. Those who had glasses had already announced the other craft to be a warship, although, of what nation, it was as yet impossible to say.