where the two seamen were standing by the side of their guns.

"If it really is the German raider," he remarked, "they might as well
fire off a popgun as that thing. She is supposed to be armed with four
six-inch guns and two torpedo tubes."

Crawshay nodded.

"So I told the captain. We might have a go at a submarine, but the
raider would sink us in two minutes if we tried to tackle her. What a
beastly voyage this is!" he went on, in a depressed tone. "I can't get
over the fact that I risked my life to get on board, too."

Jocelyn Thew, with a little word of excuse, had swung around and
disappeared. Katharine looked at her companion curiously.

"Do you believe that it really is the raider, Mr. Crawshay?" she
enquired.

He hesitated. In Jocelyn's absence his manner seemed to undergo some
subtle change, his tone to become crisper and less querulous.

"We had some reason to hope," he said cautiously, "that she was on a
different course. It is just possible, however, that in changing it
she might have struck this bank of fog and preferred to hang about
for a time."

"What will happen if she finds us?"

"That depends entirely upon circumstances."