Half an hour later a large auxiliary barque came ploughing her way up Channel. Although absolutely unarmed she showed no fear of the threatened submarine blockade, her red ensign proudly and unmistakably announcing the fact that she belonged to the greatest mercantile navy the world has ever yet seen.
"That rascally submarine, sir!" announced the master of the "Asphodel" to Terence, pointing to a peculiar swirl in the placid water about a mile astern of the barque, followed by the sinister-looking conning-tower and twin periscopes of the German pirate.
Doffing his regulation cap, Aubyn raised his head just above the low bulwarks and kept the submarine under observation with his telescope. Owing to the "line-ahead" formation of the trawlers, the "Asphodel" was nearest the enemy craft, which bore well on that trawler's port quarter.
The barque was helpless. Being under a full press of canvas she could not even attempt to ram her antagonist, while the wind being light, and her auxiliary engines of comparatively low horse-power, flight was out of the question.
The German submarine approached quickly and fearlessly. A survey of the horizon revealed to her captain nothing formidable in sight, only three harmless trawlers off to the fishing-ground. When he had finished with the barque, he decided, he would send two of the trawlers to the bottom, in order to let the English know that even fish was to become a scarce article of food, and let the third craft go with the crews of their sunken consorts.
It did not take the submarine long to range up on the starboard quarter of the barque. A brief argument took place between the German captain and the British merchant skipper, with the result that the latter, finding resistance useless, had the vessel hove-to.
On the deck of the submarine, just in front of the after quick-firing gun that had been raised from below and was trained on the barque, stood a steel boat lashed down and secured in chocks. In the boat's garboards were four large apertures, each capable of being closed watertight by the manipulation of a single interrupted thread screw. When open these holes allowed the boat to be emptied or flooded with great rapidity as the submarine rose or dived.
Yet for some reason the pirates made no attempt to use their own boat; they ordered the barque to lower two of hers, and with three men in each to row alongside the submarine.
It was the intention of the Germans to rifle the prize before they placed explosives on board. They were evidently short of provisions, oil, and petrol, and these were to be found in abundance upon the luckless barque. The ship's boats could be more conveniently employed upon this business, as in the case of a surprise there would be delay in hauling the steel tender on to the submarine's deck and securing it, before she could dive.
Terence watched this part of the operation with extreme annoyance. If the pirate meant to keep some of the British crew on the deck of the submarine, her destruction could not be accomplished without great risk and peril to the men of the mercantile marine. However, he decided the capture or destruction of the unknown submarine—for she had no number painted on her grey sides or conning-tower—was imperative, and acting in accordance with a prearranged plan, he gave the master of the "Asphodel" instructions to steer towards the now motionless barque, approaching on the starboard hand, while the other trawlers held steadily on their course.