"Hallo, old man! So they've let you out? Guess it's about time I thought about moving. I guess you weren't long in getting into uniform."
"Considering I haven't taken off my things for the last three days I cannot agree with you," replied the Sub, with a hearty laugh. "I've come to bring you out of this, Detroit, so the sooner you come down from your perch the better."
"I reckon I've had a rotten time," remarked Detroit, as the two friends made their way to the shore. "But it's worth it," he added enthusiastically. "To look out of that window and to see the Yankee eagle and the British lion knocking spots off the German was the finest sight in creation."
Hamerton shrugged his shoulders. He was thinking of the carnage that had been wrought on both sides ere "the finest sight in creation" was completed.
"Yes," he said slowly, "I suppose it was. The onlookers always see the best of the game."
* * * * *
That same day the articles of capitulation were drawn up and signed. The officers and some of the garrison of Heligoland, upon giving their parole, were permitted to withdraw with their private effects. The guns were either burst by means of guncotton or toppled over the cliffs, the defensive works that had escaped serious damage during the bombardment were blown up, and the captured war vessels either sunk or sent across the North Sea.
Twenty-four hours later an armistice was declared between the Anglo-American allies and Germany. The humiliation of the German Empire as a naval power was complete.
Peace was definitely declared in less than a fortnight from the unprovoked but abortive raid upon the east coast of Great Britain. By the terms of the treaty Germany was bound down not to maintain a fleet of more than twenty small cruisers. A comparatively small indemnity was demanded, while the fortifications of Borkum were ordered to be razed.
Heligoland was by mutual consent restored to its former masters, the Danes, and once and for all the menace to Great Britain ceased to exist.