"Well?" remarked the Lieutenant interrogatively, as the prisoner, with a sailor on each side of him, stood in the Captain's cabin.
The man from the submarine growled something beneath his breath. Evidently he had not yet recovered from his astonishment.
"Well?" repeated Lawless almost genially.
"This boat, is it not the Gelderland?" asked the prisoner in passable English.
"It is."
"Then why——"
"Take him aft to the wheelhouse and lock him in," interrupted the Lieutenant. The prisoner made an abrupt movement, which was checked at sight of a revolver which one of the seamen was holding. Then he was marched off.
It was not till then that Lawless realised the difficulties of the situation. He had no gun mounted wherewith to sink the enemy submarine; obviously he could not board her so that——
"I'll ram her!" he ejaculated aloud.
He returned to the bridge and saw that the huge whale-like form of the U boat was still alongside. Grabbing the telegraph, he rang down "Full speed ahead!" and then, thrusting the quartermaster aside, took the wheel and swung the vessel round so that she was bows-on to the submarine. At the same moment the latter's hatch opened and a man stepped out, evidently to try and find out what kept the other so long. But before he could realise what was happening, the Gelderland drove right into the low-lying hull; there was a terrific shock, and, as the steamer reeled under the force of the impact, a stifled cry from out of the blackness—and then silence.