Here he sat down and listened through the open gratings. Before long he overheard the engineer shout something to one of his assistants. The voice was plainly audible above the pulsations of the engines, and the words were unmistakably German; so was the reply.
"We're getting on," decided Villiers. "I wonder if this is the Zug. I have my doubts."
He glanced to and fro along the deck. On the fo'c'sle two men were engaged in coiling down a rope. Their backs were turned towards him. Those were the only members of the crew within sight. The helmsman was invisible from the spot where Villiers had taken up his position, owing to the height of the bridge and to the fact that the wheel-house was set well back from the canvas screen running round the bridge stanchion-rails.
Having satisfied himself on this point, Villiers peered through the open fidley into the engine-room. He saw what he expected, for right in the centre of the for'ard engine-room bulkhead was a brass plate setting forth the information that the steamship Geier had been engined in 1904 by the firm of Hopper and Heinz of Stettin.
That ought to have been conclusive, but Villiers did not rest there. After a while he made his way right aft and leant over the stumpy counter. There were the words "Zug—Malmo" written plain for anyone to read, but the letters were freshly painted, and there were signs that a longer word had been somewhat carelessly obliterated.
"Feeling better, Mr. Villiers?" asked Strauss, who happened to come on deck at that moment. "I wouldn't look down if I were you; it won't do your head any good."
Villiers, caught out, made no reply.
"Come and have tea in my cabin," continued the skipper of the Zug, as a preliminary to his ordered task of "pumping" his involuntary guest.
Jack acquiesced.
"What land is that?" he inquired casually, indicating a rugged range of hills about four miles on the port beam.