, which caused the small French destroyer _Mosquet_ to appear like
a huge battleship. When he discovered the truth, Von Mueller closed with
the Frenchman, who came to the rescue of the _Glenturret_, the powder
ship. Destroyer and cruiser closed for a fight, the former trying to get
close enough to make work with torpedoes possible, but the long range of
the _Emden's_ guns prevented this, and the _Mosquet_ was badly damaged
by having her engine room hit. Soon she was in a bad way, and Von Mueller
ordered his guns silenced, thinking the destroyer would now give up the
fight. But the Frenchman was valiant and refused to do so; he let go
with two torpedoes which did not find their mark, and was immediately
subjected to a withering fire, which caused his ship to sink, bow first.

One of the destroyers which had been in the harbor now came out to take
issue with the _Emden_, but it was the business of the latter to
continue destroying merchant ships and not to run the risk of having her
career ended by a warship, so she immediately put off for the Indian
Ocean. A storm which then came up permitted her to make a better escape.

It was not until the 9th of November that the world at large heard more
of her, and it proved to be the last day of her reign of terror. There
was a British wireless and cable station on the Cocos (Keeling) Isles,
southwest of Java, and Von Mueller had determined to interrupt the
communication maintained there connecting India, Australia, and South
Africa. Forty men and three officers, with three machine guns, were
detailed by him as a landing party to destroy instruments and cut the
cables. But such a thing had been partially forestalled by the British
authorities, who had set up false cable ends. These were destroyed by
the deceived Germans. When the _Emden_ had first made her appearance the
news had been sent out by the wireless operator on shore, not knowing
what ships would pick up his calls.

This time luck was against Von Mueller, for it so happened that a convoy
of troop ships from Australia was passing within one hundred miles. They
were accompanied by the Australian cruisers _Melbourne_ and _Sydney_.
The latter was dispatched to go to the Cocos Islands, and by getting up
a speed of 26 knots she reached them in less than three hours. Von
Mueller knew that escape by flight was impossible, for his ship had been
weeks at sea; her boilers were crusted, her machinery badly in need of
repair, and sh