Somewhere from the vicinity of the wrecked bridge came a hoarse voice:
"We want no favours from strafed Germans. Get your coal yourself if you want it. You'll have to jolly well look sharp, for the hooker'll be on her way to Davy Jones in half an hour."
"Himmel!" gasped the astonished kapitan, completely taken aback by the bull-dog audacity of the collier's men. "Quick, Herr Klick. Sound the well."
Accompanied by a couple of armed seamen the unter-leutnant hurried below. In a few minutes he reappeared.
"They've opened the valves, sir," he reported. "The sea is rushing in like a sluice. It is already up to the floor of the engine-room."
Von Riesser leant over the bridge rail and surveyed the deck of the collier forty feet below.
"Unless you close those valves I'll smash every boat you have!" he shouted.
A chorus of gibes was the only reply. The engine-room staff alone knew the position of the valves. It would take a stranger a couple of hours to locate them, and the men knew it.
"Smash away," they replied derisively. "Smashing private property is the only thing you Germans can do properly."
For a full minute Kapitan von Riesser lost all control of himself. He stormed and raved, cursing both in German and English, until he realized that during that minute the collier had sunk deeper in the water.