Meanwhile, the English boat had drawn nearer. The second mate at once shouted down the tube, 'Get up more steam, the Englishman will be alongside in no time.' And with a sinister smile he added, 'If you fellows can't make more steam, say the word. The fuse is ready. But in that case please label your bones.' The noise of shovels, the banging of furnace-doors, and a loud cheer were the answer that came up from the engine-room. The chief-engineer came puffing up the ladder and shouted to me, 'Captain, if we go on like this the boilers will burst. The steam is long past the red mark.'
'I thought it was long ago. But it's no good worrying about that, my dear fellow. We must break through at all costs. As it is, we have still got a chance; but if this fellow astern of us succeeds in catching us we can make our wills.' He shook his head seriously. Then he plunged down again into his own domain below, and encouraged his men to work as if the devil were at our heels.
By now the wireless boat had come up with the Shatter, which was still making leisurely for Tralee. To our joy we noticed the other vessel carefully manœuvring in order to come alongside the Shatter. This gave us a good start, and we could see several people jump from the wireless boat, which was letting off a white cloud of hissing steam, on board the Shatter. What happened then was not hard to guess. But the captain of the Shatter will certainly not reveal it as long as he lives. Unfortunately, we were unable to watch the proceedings from close range.
After an interval of about five minutes the Shatter went about and then both boats took up the chase. But our pursuers had lost so much time in laying their ship alongside the Shatter that they had little chance of overtaking us, for our brave little Aud was now, according to the patent log, doing more than thirteen knots.
The coastline now bent round towards SW., and as we were still keeping the same distance from it, we were soon out of sight of the battery. Keeping the same speed, we ran for another hour and a half, and noted with joy that our pursuers were visibly dropping behind. The English also soon saw the impossibility of overtaking us, for they suddenly turned off to port and steamed slowly towards the coast, where they soon disappeared in one of the many bays.
It was getting on for half-past three, so we must already have put some miles behind us. When the engine-room staff heard that our pursuers had given up the chase they greeted the news with three rousing cheers. We all gave a sigh of relief, especially the chief-engineer, who lost no time now in letting the steam down below the red danger mark on the pressure gauge.
We were now getting near the mouth of the bay. The sea was studded all over with little islands and rocks, some of which projected only a couple of feet out of the water. One of the larger islands aroused our interest. At the foot of the massive, rocky wall there was a semicircular opening of natural formation so big that a sailing-boat could comfortably go through to the far side. Unfortunately, the chart showed so many shallows between these islands that I felt bound, under the circumstances, to take the longer course round the outlying islands, a proceeding which, at any rate, gave me more freedom of movement. And that was at the moment more important than ever, for it was inconceivable that the captain of the wireless boat, after giving up the hopeless chase, would sit down and do nothing. So we were not particularly pleased when we noticed a lighthouse with signalling station and wireless installation facing the sea on Dunmore Island, the last island on the south side of the bay.
Without doubt these people already knew all about our flight. Fortunately for us, however, they were unarmed, so that we had to reckon only with the fact that they would watch us and report every alteration of our course to the nearest coastguard stations and ships.
The Atlantic now lay before us, and I had the choice of steering north, west, or south. South appeared to me to be the best, for even if we had aroused suspicion the English had so far had no positive proof against us. The Norwegian flag still flew at our stern, and as I had told the captain of the Shatter that we were bound for Cardiff and then for Italy, I thought it was best to keep up appearances while it was still daylight, and to steer a southerly course. If a warship should then come along we should be able to justify our course by means of our manifest. Then, when it got dark, I intended to turn westwards in order to get away from the patrolled coastal area.