some night; but they's too many of us around in the daytime fer
'em to get the sun."

It was then that one of the men stuck his head up through the
hatchway and seeing me, asked permission to come on deck and get
a breath of fresh air. I recognized him as Benson, the man who,
Wilson had said, reported having seen Lys with von Schoenvorts two
nights before. I motioned him on deck and then called him to one
side, asking if he had seen anything out of the way or unusual
during his trick on watch the night before. The fellow scratched
his head a moment and said, "No," and then as though it was an
afterthought, he told me that he had seen the girl in the crew's
room about midnight talking with the German commander, but as
there hadn't seemed to him to be any harm in that, he hadn't said
anything about it. Telling him never to fail to report to me
anything in the slightest out of the ordinary routine of the ship,
I dismissed him.

Several of the other men now asked permission to come on deck, and
soon all but those actually engaged in some necessary duty were
standing around smoking and talking, all in the best of spirits.
I took advantage of the absence of the men upon the deck to go
below for my breakfast, which the cook was already preparing
upon the electric stove. Lys, followed by Nobs, appeared as I
entered the centrale. She met me with a pleasant "Good morning!"
which I am afraid I replied to in a tone that was rather constrained
and surly.

"Will you breakfast with me?" I suddenly asked the girl,
determined to commence a probe of my own along the lines which