"I'll tell you everything——" began the man.
"And mind you speak the truth," warned the sub. "Now, fire away."
"A submarine is expected," declared the prisoner. "At what hour I cannot say—it might be any hour between now and daybreak. She won't show any lights. She'll anchor in Half Way Deep and send a boat ashore. The men will imitate the curlew call three times, and I was to reply with a cry like the hoot of an owl. Then I had to lower petrol-cans as fast as I could."
"And your companion?" inquired Tressidar. "Who is he?"
"As I said before, sir, a German officer who broke out of one of the prison camps."
"His name?"
"I don't know, sir, except that it's Max."
The prisoner, who gave his name as Thomas Telder and was a gamekeeper in the employ of a large landowner in the vicinity, was removed under escort to the cottage, while the midshipman, having questioned the German, appeared to report to his superior officer.
"The fellow's a pretty cool customer," declared the midshipman. "Now that the game's up he doesn't appear to mind in the least. He says his name's Max Falkenheim, and that he's an unter-leutnant of the cruiser 'Mainz.' He was one of those fellows who were reported to have escaped from Donington Hall by digging a tunnel."
"Jolly rummy that he should fetch up here," commented the sub. "He's a long way out of his reckoning."