You must admire how careful those English are. The officer examined every page of the log.
"How is this, Captain?" he exclaimed. "You were laid up three weeks and a half?"
There was a discrepancy in dates which represented our wait after the Admiralty had ordered us not to sail because of the return of the submarine, Deutschland, and the consequent increased vigilance of the blockade. I had not thought of it. Here was the one detail that we had neglected to provide for in our elaborately detailed preparations. Even if I had been in the best of health, I should not have known what to reply. With that tobacco quid running around inside of my body I could only pray to God for help.
Again Leudemann saved the situation. He was a little fellow and simple-hearted, but a great character. When bad times came, Leudemann was at his best.
"We didn't lie there for pleasure," he said in his dry way as he looked up at the big Englishman. "We had orders from our owner not to sail until we got word."
"How so?"
"Haven't you been warned then about German cruisers?"
"What's that?"
"Haven't you heard about the Moewe and the auxiliary cruiser, Seeadler?"
The search officer turned to me.