"Why, it's Max Hilliger!" cried Darby Catchpole. "And the others must be his shipmates off the submarine! Let us wait and see them brought ashore."
The Olaf Triggvason was warped alongside the pier before being taken through the bridge into the inner harbour. Officers from the naval base went aboard. As soon as it became known in the port that a captive ship had been brought in many of the townspeople thronged to the pier, but Police-constable Challis drove them back, and a barrier was drawn across.
In the meantime, Midshipman Rodney Redisham had stepped ashore from the barque to greet his brother Mark.
"So you've sunk a submarine?" said Mark.
"We may have captured one," returned Rodney.
"It was the U50 of course," pursued Mark. "You've got Max Hilliger a prisoner. It's a good thing to have put an end to the U50. She's done a lot of damage one way and another."
"Most of the German submarine commanders have tried to do that," said Rodney. "I suppose it was their duty. You can't blame the officers. They've got to obey their sailing orders."
"What, even when they're told to sink such a ship as the Ruritania?" questioned Darby Catchpole.
"Oh, but Max Hilliger was never concerned with a crime like that!" declared Mark Redisham.
"I should hope not," added his brother. "From what I know of him I believe he'd sooner go on strike than have a hand in sinking any but enemy ships of war. But, of course, we've never asked them any questions."