"Is this your property?" demanded the Major as Selwyn stepped forward.
"No, sir."
"Then why the deuce----" exclaimed the officer, raising his voice. "Here, remove the other prisoners."
For twenty minutes the ejected men cooled their heels in the alley-way until again summoned to the orderly room.
"You are released from arrest," declared the Major curtly; then, as an afterthought, he added: "It would be advisable that you maintain discretion over the matter."
"What happened, old man?" enquired Fortescue, as the three New Zealanders gained a secluded part of the mess deck.
"The pocket-book contained a secret code," explained Selwyn. "It has been partly deciphered, and is proved to be a means of communication between someone on board the ship and the U-boats. I explained how I found it, and offered to produce you chaps as witnesses, but the Major was awfully decent about it. He means to find the owner, and if necessary is going to interrogate every man who went into that stokehold. Hallo, they've rounded up our immediate predecessors already."
As he spoke twenty Afrikanders, headed by the gigantic Jan van Eindhovengen, marched along the mess deck under escort.
"By Golly!" exclaimed Fortescue. "That's the man!"
"Who--the boxer?" enquired Selwyn.