But while the English ships travelled backwards and forwards, lighting up the waters with their searchlights and seeking us in every conceivable spot, they little knew that at times, close on their heels, a periscope proceeded on its leisurely way, and underneath this periscope—the "U Deutschland."
At 12 p.m. that night, after hours of indescribable tension, the command rang out: "Rise to the surface!"
We were through.
Slowly the "Deutschland" rose through the water, the tanks were blown out and the oil engines started.
At full speed we rushed on out into the open freedom of the Atlantic, while behind us in the north-west, the English, with whole bundles of searchlights, sought the waters in vain.
They must have grown somewhat irritable towards the end!
CHAPTER XIII
THE HOMEWARD JOURNEY
Never had the "Deutschland" travelled so swiftly as in those early morning hours of the 3rd August. With marvellous speed she raced on, leaving two broad streaks of foam on either side.
The engines rumbled in perfect rhythm, the combustion was working without a flaw, and the exhaust showed not the slightest cloud, so that even Herr Kiszling was thoroughly contented, and in a moment of unconscious tenderness nearly stroked the shaft of his beloved engines....
When the sun rose the coast had long disappeared from sight in the distance in a grey mist, and there was no vessel of any kind to be seen.