My men were all armed now with both rifles and pistols, each
having plenty of ammunition. I ordered one of the Germans ashore
with a line, and sent two of my own men to guard him, for from
what little we had seen of Caprona, or Caspak as we learned later
to call the interior, we realized that any instant some new and
terrible danger might confront us. The line was made fast to a
small tree, and at the same time I had the stern anchor dropped.

As soon as the boche and his guard were aboard again, I called
all hands on deck, including von Schoenvorts, and there I
explained to them that the time had come for us to enter into
some sort of an agreement among ourselves that would relieve
us of the annoyance and embarrassment of being divided into two
antagonistic parts--prisoners and captors. I told them that it
was obvious our very existence depended upon our unity of action,
that we were to all intent and purpose entering a new world as
far from the seat and causes of our own world-war as if millions
of miles of space and eons of time separated us from our past
lives and habitations.

"There is no reason why we should carry our racial and political
hatreds into Caprona," I insisted. "The Germans among us might
kill all the English, or the English might kill the last German,
without affecting in the slightest degree either the outcome of
even the smallest skirmish upon the western front or the opinion
of a single individual in any belligerent or neutral country.
I therefore put the issue squarely to you all; shall we bury our
animosities and work together with and for one another while we
remain upon Caprona, or must we continue thus divided and but half
armed, possibly until death has claimed the last of us? And let