"At that!" he ordered, and at the same time motioning to the hand at the capstan to stop heaving. "Evidence!" he shouted. "We've fished up the remains of the Cormorant."
This time there was no doubt about it. One of the flukes was embedded in the sea-plane's motor, and with it was a large portion of one of the wings, a part of the wreckage of the fuselage, and a float bearing unmistakable signs of being stove in by means of an axe.
"That's conclusive," said Harborough sternly. "Since von Giespert won't listen to reason, I'll have to teach him a lesson. Get that piece of wing aboard for evidence, although I guess he's tumbled to it already. He's been watching us all the time, the blackguardly sweep. We'll bluff him. If that fails, then we'll use force, but only as a last resource. He's asking for it all the time."
Kaspar von Giespert took more than an interested view of the developments of the next hour. He was considerably perturbed when, through a telescope that decorously protruded through a gap in a storm-dodger, he watched the impromptu salvage operations of the scuttled sea-plane.
He took a more cheerful view of life when the Titania got under way and proceeded seawards, but at the same time that evolution considerably mystified him. He could not understand why the Englishman should retire so tamely from the argument when he had undisputable evidence to support his case.
Von Giespert was on the point of shaking hands with himself and abusing some of his crew—an indication that he was regaining his normal state of mind—when Strauss announced that the Titania had turned sixteen points to starboard and was again making for the island.
"We'll fight her," declared von Giespert vehemently, for he realized that the game was a desperate one. "Serve out the arms, Herr Strauss. Himmel! What would I give now for a submerged torpedo-tube? Would that she piled herself upon the reef. She nearly did it last time."
"Harborough is more cautious this time," observed Strauss. "He's coming in under power."
"He is, curse him," growled the other.
The two Germans watched in silence as the Titania, with her exhaust chortling noisily, passed through the narrow gap and starboarded helm, steering for the opposite part of the lagoon to that where the Zug lay at anchor. That was another puzzler to the already bewildered von Giespert.