Unprotestingly Farrar was led back to his cell, an empty store-room in the fore part of the submarine, and immediately beneath the torpedo-tubes compartment. His resolute courage had reasserted itself. He no longer dreaded the attentions of a British destroyer; the satisfaction of knowing that a pack of cowardly Huns would be done in outweighing the fear of death, even in their unhallowed company.
For the next twenty-four hours he was kept in utter darkness; his food and drink during that period consisted of black bread of the consistency of plaster of Paris and a pitcher of water. He could not help contrasting his present position with that of certain German officers whom he had seen as prisoners on board British men-of-war. In the matter of food and drink they fared equally as well as did their captors; if wounded, they were given the best medical attention available, and their comfort was considered in almost every possible way. The ungrateful Hun, however, does not thank his captors for their little attentions. With the arrogance of his race he attributes his easy lot as a prisoner of war to the fear of the British as to what might happen to them when Germany is victorious. And on their part the British have yet to learn fully—as they are beginning to do—that the only thing the German fears is the force of armed might.
During the second day of his captivity Nigel was allowed to take exercise on deck in charge of a couple of alert seamen, who had been strictly enjoined to take every precaution lest the prisoner should leap overboard.
The U-boat was now within sight of land, for lofty ranges of mountains were visible on the starboard hand. She had evaded the Otranto patrols and was now in the comparatively safe waters of the Adriatic, and within easy distance of the numerous land-locked harbours of the Dalmatian coast, where, under the lee of a chain of islands, the battle-fleets of the world could lie undetected from the open sea save from the all-seeing eyes of an aircraft.
With a couple of German sailors standing with ready automatic pistols at a distance of twenty yards apart, the sub was compelled to walk briskly to and fro on the fore deck. Fortunately the sea was calm and the comparatively low-lying platform was practically free from the waves, although occasionally a crest would break inboard and swirl ankle-deep as far aft as the base of the conning tower.
Before Farrar had been five minutes at his enforced exercise the kapitan-leutnant, who had been intently watching something on the distant horizon, rapped out a string of orders, from which the sub was able to understand with his limited knowledge of German that the U-boat was about to dive.
Unceremoniously the prisoner was hustled below, and as he descended the vertical steel ladder of the for'ard hatchway, he heard a petty officer remark, "Fortunately we have but one torpedo. I cannot understand why, since we are so near our base, the kapitan should risk it."
"And against an armed warship, too," added the Hun to whom the remark was addressed.
"It is unreasonable. What is she?"
"One of those accursed monitors, I believe," replied the first speaker with a shrug of his shoulders; then, catching sight of the prisoner being hurried forward, he spat contemptuously.