He was staring at the Iron Cross on the midshipman's breast. Max was conscious of the fixed gaze, and his hand went up to the decoration. He gripped it in his fingers, and tearing it off, threw the medal contemptuously from him.
"But he was your friend," continued the quartermaster. "He was your superior officer. He was doing his duty to the Fatherland. He was obeying his orders!"
"He was not bound to obey an order to take the lives of hundreds of innocent people—peaceful, unarmed travellers," Max objected warmly.
"But you did not prevent him," rejoined the quarter-master. "The torpedo was discharged. I, myself, discharged it."
"Yes, unfortunately it was discharged." Max nodded gravely. "It was discharged, and it struck the target at which it was aimed. Even at this moment that great ship is sinking and her passengers and crew are struggling to save themselves."
"That is good," said the quarter-master with a chuckle of satisfaction. "It is a blow from which our English enemies will not soon recover. The whole world will now know that our enterprising submarines are more powerful than all Great Britain's boasted battleships." He returned to the engine-room and told his expectant companions that the mighty Atlantic liner had been sent to the bottom. They cheered noisily and started singing, and their singing and cheering only ceased when they learned that their commander was dead.
Many of them deserted their stations to make a rush at Max Hilliger. They called him an assassin, a traitor. They declared that he was at heart a contemptible Englishman, and that he ought never to have been allowed to enter the Kaiser's navy.
But while they clamoured for his life they realised that in their present situation they could not well do without him. There was only one other of their officers capable of assuming the command and navigating them home—a sub-lieutenant named Adolf von Wiebe. It was necessary, therefore, that Max Hilliger should continue to act as an officer, taking watch and watch about with Lieutenant von Wiebe, until they should join the main fleet beyond Heligoland, and hand him over for punishment.
"In the meantime," said Lieutenant von Wiebe, "you will consider yourself under arrest."
"Naturally," returned Max. "And you need not suppose that I wish to escape the penalty for what I have done. I told Hermann Körner that if he fired that torpedo I would shoot him. Instead of warning him I ought to have shot him as soon as I knew that the liner had come in sight. It was he who was the murderer, not I."