CHAPTER XXV.
MAX HILLIGER'S SATISFACTION.
Max Hilliger's declaration that he would not be satisfied until Lieutenant Hermann Körner and he had put a torpedo into a British battleship was not long in being fulfilled.
How they discovered that such a ship was to be found in a particular position on the North Sea at a particular time is a matter which cannot be explained. It is certain that the Germans succeeded in discovering many of the movements and intended movements of the British Fleet which were believed to be secret, and of which even many highly-placed British naval officers were profoundly ignorant. Doubtless their spy system and their methods of communication were perfectly well organised and established long before the outbreak of war.
By whatsoever means he received his information, Lieutenant Körner expected the squadron to pass southward, and he prepared to carry out his instructions by bringing his submarine within striking distance at the anticipated moment.
It was a wild, dark winter's night, bitterly cold, with a fierce wind blowing from the north-east. Submarines are not commonly supposed to be of great use in the darkness; their periscopes are then blind. But Körner boldly kept the U50 on the surface, trusting to the high waves to hide her betraying conning-tower from watchful eyes and from the beams of searchlights.
But as an additional measure of protection and deception he had hoisted a pair of brown lugsails on her two temporary masts, so that from a distance she might have the appearance of an innocent fishing boat. This ruse was a development and improvement of Max Hilliger's idea of concealing a submarine within the body of a larger boat.
Hour after weary hour went by; but no light, no steamer's smoke; could be seen through the inky darkness. Still he waited, while the submarine rocked and tossed and rolled on the giant waves, and the wind shrieked angrily.
Towards midnight a tiny masthead light blinked fitfully through the curtain of driving sleet.
"They come!" said Körner from his post in the conning-tower. He had seen a green starboard light gleam wanly against an approaching vessel's black hull.