"Heave-to, or I'll sink you!" shouted the kapitan through a megaphone, for the tramp was now less than two cables' lengths away and broad on the starboard beam.
The tramp, which proved to be S.S. Myra of South Shields, had no option but to surrender. She was unarmed and of slow speed. Having left Simon's Bay with a convoy under escort she had encountered the tail of a cyclone. Detained by temporary engine-room defects during the storm she had fallen out of station, and was now a couple of hundred miles astern of the rest of the convoy.
Slowly the Blue Ensign was lowered, and way taken off the ship. Within ten minutes a prize crew in charge of Unter-leutnant Klick was on board. The officers and crew were locked up below, and warned that any attempt at resistance would result in the instant destruction of the Myra with all on board.
The boarding-officer's report was to the effect that the tramp was heavily laden with warlike stores. He asked instructions as to the disposal of the prize.
Kapitan von Riesser's mind was very active now. With a successful issue in sight he was not inclined to send such a valuable prize to the bottom.
"Can you get the Myra's engine-room and stokehold staff to work, Herr Klick?" asked the kapitan.
"I can, sir," replied the unter-leutnant grimly; and he did, for by dint of threats he compelled the luckless men to undertake to carry on under his orders.
"Very good," continued the kapitan of the Pelikan, receiving an affirmative reply. "Follow me at two cables' lengths astern. I'll slow down to enable you to keep station. Be prepared to abandon ship instantly should occasion arise."
Later in the afternoon the Pelikan and her prize arrived off Latham Island, under the lee of which von Riesser had decided to remain the night, since it was too hazardous to enter the harbour he had selected during the hours of darkness.
Denbigh, who had been allowed on deck, recognized the island. He had served a commission on the flagship of the East Indies India Station when he was a midshipman, and was fairly well conversant with the African coast in the vicinity of Zanzibar and Dar-es-Salaam.