[Illustration: "WITH THE QUICK-FIRERS TRAINED UPON THE BULKY TARGET, NO. 445 APPROACHED WITHIN HAILING DISTANCE">[
"Think she'll fight, Bill?" the sub. heard a seaman enquire of his chum.
"Wish to heaven she would," replied the man. "We'd make it hot for them. But they won't, the brutes. They never do when they're cornered."
The speaker was in ordinary circumstances a steady, well-conducted seaman-gunner, who bore testimony to his humanity in the form of a silver medal from the Royal Humane Society for saving life under most hazardous conditions. Yet, without the slightest compunction, he would have sent a shell crashing into the inflammable gases of the Zepp.'s envelope. The mental vision of that ruined cottage with the slaughtered woman and her children had hardened his heart.
It was with almost similar sentiments that Tressidar hoped the Germans would put up a fight. With their superior armament they stood a chance of sending the little torpedo-boat to the bottom, or at any rate sweeping her decks with a murderous fire from her numerous machine guns.
She did neither. Instead, a man exhibited a large white flag, while the rest of the crew stood with folded arms, displaying a complete confidence in the willingness of the British seamen to save them from a lingering death in the wild North Sea.
With the quick-firers still trained upon the bulky target, No. 445 approached within hailing distance.
"Do you surrender?" shouted the sub. through a megaphone.
"Yes," was the reply, given by a tall, burly officer speaking good English. "We are disabled. We give ourselves up as prisoners."