t," replied Jose Medina.

"The cruiser was looking for submarine bases, I understand, not
tobacco," Martin Hillyard observed. "And since it was not the cruiser's
commission to look for tobacco, why should it discover it?"

Jose Medina shrugged his shoulders. Jose Medina's purse was very long
and reached very high. It would be quite impolitic for that cruiser to
discover Jose Medina's tobacco stores, as Medina himself and Martin
Hillyard, and the captain of the cruiser, all very well knew.

Martin Hillyard continued to draw fine straight lines westwards from the
northern coast of Mallorca to the mainland of Spain, some touching the
shore to the north of Barcelona, some striking it as far south as
Almeria and Garrucha. When he had finished his map-making he handed the
result to Jose Medina.

"See, senor! Your feluccas cut across all the trade-routes through the
Mediterranean. Ships going east or going west must pass between the
Balearics and Africa, or between the Balearics and Spain. We are here in
the middle, and, whichever course those ships take, they must cross the
lines on which your feluccas continually come and go."

Jose Medina looked at the map. He did not commit himself in any way. He
contented himself with a question: "And what then?"

"So too with the German submarines. They also must cross and cross again
in their cruises, those lines along which your feluccas continually come
and go."

Jose Medina threw up his hands.

"The submarines! Senor, if you listen to the babblers on the quays, you
would think that the seas are stiff with them! Schools of them like
whales everywhere! Only yesterday Palma rang with the account of one. It
pursued a French steamer between Minorca and Mallorca. It spoke to a
fishing boat! What did it not do? Senor, there was no submarine
yesterday in the channel between Minorca and Mallorca. If there had been
I must have known."

And he sat back as though the subject were disposed of.

"But submarines do visit these waters, Senor Medina, and they do sink
ships," replied Hillyard.

Jose Medina shrugged his shoulders and spread out his hands.

"_Claro!_ And it is said that I supply them with their oil." He turned
swiftly to Hillyard. "Perhaps you have heard that story, senor?"

Hillyard nodded.

"Yes. I did not believe it. It is because I did not believe it that I am
here, asking your help."

"I thank you. It is the truth. I will tell you something now. Not one of
my cap